Summary: A large international study finds that babies living in insecure conditions, including as refugees, display key social skills on par with children raised in more stable environments. Using eye-tracking technology, researchers found that over 800 children from Sweden, Uganda, Bhutan, and Zimbabwe equally followed social cues like shared attention, regardless of poverty, trauma, or parental mental health.
This challenges long-held assumptions about early vulnerability and highlights the resilience of infant development even in hardship. While not all aspects of development are spared, the findings offer hope for the potential of early social learning in all children.
Key Facts:
- Cross-Cultural Resilience: Infants from war-torn or impoverished environments showed similar social cue-following as peers in secure homes.
- Eye-Tracking Method: Researchers used eye movement tracking to measure social attention in over 800 babies.
- Parental Stress Considered: Despite parental trauma or depression, infants’ ability to share attention was not impaired.
Source: Uppsala University
Babies living as refugees have some of the same social skills as children with more secure home conditions.
This is shown by a new study that researchers from Uppsala University have conducted in cooperation with colleagues in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Bhutan. Over 800 children participated in the study, making it one of the largest infant studies ever conducted using eye movement measurements.
“We were surprised by the results. Previous research has shown – and we ourselves assumed– that the early infancy period is extremely vulnerable. That children’s development is influenced by the social, security and economic conditions in which they spend their early years.
“However, we saw in our study that children living in insecurity are not doomed. Some important social skills are intact. This inspires hope, though it doesn’t mean everything is all right,” says Gustaf Gredebäck.
The study was conducted in Bhutan, Sweden, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and involved researchers in peace and conflict studies, game design and psychology. Between 100 and 300 children in each country participated in the study.
It shows that regardless of poverty, traumatic experiences in the family, experiences of hunger, war and deep depression in parents, babies are equally good at following social cues.
To obtain a picture of the child’s background and circumstances, the researchers interviewed the child’s parents. They were asked to talk about their experiences of trauma and how they were feeling, and their response was used as an indicator of the parents’ wellbeing status and of their available resources to be a good enough parent.
Internationally established concepts
In all the countries, both children living in secure conditions with parents who were well and children living in troubled conditions with parents who were not well were studied. Trauma from war was only present in children in Uganda, but poverty was present in families in many countries and depression was present in all the countries.
The definition of traumatic events and poverty was based on established internationally validated scales and local differences.
The questions in the forms were put to the participants by a local research assistant who could explain and contextualise the question. It was often mental wellbeing issues that needed to be related to different concepts and patterns of thought in different countries. For poverty, country-specific indicators were used.
Eye movement measurements
To measure the children’s social activity and ability to follow what was happening around them, the researchers used eye movement measurements, filming children’s eyes and using an algorithm to calculate where the child was looking.
In this way, it is possible to measure the extent to which a child follows the direction in which someone else is looking, i.e. what they are interested in and how they read what others are interested in. The children are involved in a process of sharing attention with other people.
“By exploring the same ability in very different families in a new way, we can gain a deeper understanding of what we all have in common, the innate abilities that develop early in life. This is important for several reasons,” Gredebäck says.
“The study gives hope and shows that early childhood holds opportunities for learning and development for all children, including those living in some of the most insecure environments in the world.”
The study was carried out in collaboration with researchers at Kabale University in Uganda, the University of Zimbabwe in Zimbabwe and Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences in Bhutan. From Uppsala University, researchers in peace and conflict studies, game design and psychology participated.
Funding: The project is funded by the Wallenberg Academy Fellows Programme, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW 2012.0120 and KAW 2017.0284).
About this social development and child trauma research news
Author: Gustaf Gredebäck
Source: Uppsala University
Contact: Gustaf Gredebäck – Uppsala University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Infant Gaze Following Is Stable Across Markedly Different Cultures and Resilient to Family Adversities Associated With War and Climate Change” by Gustaf Gredebäck et al. Psychological Science
Abstract
Infant Gaze Following Is Stable Across Markedly Different Cultures and Resilient to Family Adversities Associated With War and Climate Change
Gaze following in infancy allows triadic social interactions and a comprehension of other individuals and their surroundings.
Despite its importance for early development, its ontology is debated, with theories suggesting that gaze following is either a universal core capacity or an experience-dependent learned behavior.
A critical test of these theories among 809 nine-month-olds from Africa (Uganda and Zimbabwe), Europe (Sweden), and Asia (Bhutan) demonstrated that infants follow gaze to a similar degree regardless of environmental factors such as culture, maternal well-being (postpartum depression, well-being), or traumatic family events (related to war and/or climate change).
These findings suggest that gaze following may be a universal, experience-expectant process that is resilient to adversity and similar across a wide range of human experiences—a core foundation for social development.
