Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42778973›Full record

ArticleInfancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies

The Stress of Being Left Out: Physiological and Behavioral Responses to Ostracism in Preverbal Infants.

Giada Basset, Ermanno Quadrelli, Chiara Turati, Hermann Bulf

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. The Stress of Being Left Out: Physiological and Behavioral Responses to Ostracism in Preverbal Infants.Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Giada BassetDepartment of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1515-9619
Ermanno QuadrelliDepartment of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6834-0912
Chiara TuratiDepartment of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7496-1830
Hermann BulfDepartment of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4121-1341

Funding

Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca - NextGeneration EU 2022-NAZ-0410Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca - NextGeneration EU 2022-NAZ-0420
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Being ostracized is a stressful experience that affects behavioral and physiological reactivity in adults. However, evidence regarding its impact early in life remains limited. This study investigated whether inclusion or exclusion during a ball-tossing game influenced physiological and behavioral reactivity in 8-month-old infants (N = 59; 24 girls and 35 boys). It also explored whether parent-infant interaction dynamics and parental mind-attuned comments modulate infants' physiological responses, fostering greater adaptation to the social context. Results highlighted that excluded infants showed reduced heart rate variability (indexed via the Root Mean Square of Successive Differences, RMSSD), reflecting a heightened stress response, compared to included infants. They also displayed lower positive emotionality, higher negative emotionality, and greater active engagement, suggesting that sensitivity to ostracism emerges early in life. Exploratory analyses also revealed a modulatory role of parental behavior in shaping infants' physiological responses. Overall, these findings highlight that, since early life, infants exhibit physiological and behavioral reactions to ostracism, in line with the hypotheses that a system to detect and respond to social exclusion is present since the early stages of development.

Indexed as

Heart RateInfant BehaviorParent-Child RelationsSocial IsolationStress, PsychologicalChild DevelopmentEmotionsFemaleHumansInfantMalebehaviorheart rate variabilityinfantsostracismphysiological reactivity

Identifiers

PMID42778973
PMCPMC13601642

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.