Maternal unresponsiveness and infant crying across the first 9 months: A naturalistic longitudinal study

Abstract

In this longitudinal study of 50 mother-infant dyads, it is hypothesized that maternal responsiveness, defined as promptness of maternal interventions to infant crying, decreases the number and duration of infant crying bouts. All subjects were visited 12 times at home at 3-week intervals during the first 9 months after the birth of the infant. The mean total observation period for every dyad was 21.7 hours. Data on frequency and duration of infant crying and maternal responsiveness were collected through event- and audiorecording equipment. Results show that average duration of crying is reduced by half from the first to the third quarter. Average frequency of crying bouts, however, remains the same. Individual differences in duration of crying cannot be explained by differences in promptness of maternal responsiveness to infant crying. However, individual differences in number of crying bouts at the end of the first half year can be partly attributed to differences in maternal responsiveness: More frequent delay of maternal responses reduces the number of crying bouts during the first half year of life. The concept of differential responsiveness is hypothesized to explain our unexpected results.