Abstract
Infant crying is an important signal for their survival and development, and maternal beliefs about crying predict responsiveness to crying. Most studies have considered caregivers’ reactions to crying to be fixed, and it is unclear how they change with their caregiving experience. Additionally, it has recently been suggested that there is a bidirectional relationship between changes in mothers’ beliefs about crying and infants’ temperament. This study examined that relationship using a longitudinal study design. Maternal beliefs about crying and infant temperament of 339 Asian first-time mothers (mean age = 28.7 years, SD = 4.1) were measured at 1-month intervals over 4 months. There were 289 participants in Wave 2, 240 in Wave 3, and 164 in Wave 4. Prior to the main survey, we conducted a pre-survey to confirm the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Infant Crying Questionnaire. The results showed that parent-oriented beliefs, which focus on the caregiver rather than the crying infant, increased in mothers who had infants aged 3 months or older at Wave 1. We also found that the process of change in maternal beliefs was not uniform, and that infants high on surgency predicted changes in maternal beliefs about infant crying. Longitudinal studies of caregivers’ changes, such as the present study, are expected to contribute to understanding the co-development of caregivers and infants.
Highlights
We focused on infant temperament as a factor explaining the individual differences in mothers’ change pattern in response to infant crying
The results showed that for the four time points LGM, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was below 0.05 and the convergence rate was above 95% if the sample size was above 100 under all conditions
Participants who chose the same option for all questions were excluded from the analyses; two participants were excluded from Wave 1, none from Wave 2, one from Wave 3, and one from Wave 4
Summary
Infant crying is the primary means of communicating feelings and needs to the parent (Soltis, 2004). The maternal sensitivity to crying is involved in the formation of infant-mother attachment security. Changes in Beliefs About Crying that sensitive parenting behavior toward distressed infants predicted the development of infant secure attachment (Bell and Ainsworth, 1972; McElwain and Booth-Laforce, 2006). In early studies of attachment, the frequency of crying increased as the number of ignored crying episodes increased (Bell and Ainsworth, 1972). Attachment theorists emphasize providing prompt responses to infant crying according to infants’ needs and develop interventions to increase maternal sensitivity to infant crying (e.g., Hepworth et al, 2020)
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