FACTORS AFFECTING NUTURANT BEHAVIOR TOWARD INFANTS

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This study concerns psychological characteristics of parents during the pregnancy period, reactivity to cries that have varying degrees of aversiveness, and individual differences in infant characteristics as factors that influence infant development and the parent-child relationship in the first three years of life. First time expectant mothers and their spouses were studied prenatally and neonatally, and parents and infants were followed at 3, 9, 12, and 36 months. Nonpregnant women were assessed with a subset of the procedures at times corresponding to the prenatal and 3 month period. The study employed multiple levels of measurement, including observational, self-report, and physiological procedures. Data collection has been completed and all procedures have been scored. Findings from the 12-month follow-up study have been presented and reported for publication. Among the findings to emerge are the following: (1) The mother-infant attachment relationship at 12-months is predictable from 3-month interactional patterns involving dyadic distress management and from prenatal assessments of the mother, including measures of anxiety; (2) Individual differences in the fundamental frequency of cries elicited in the neonatal through three month periods are relatively stable, and this acoustic parameter is significantly related to parent ratings of infant temperament. Those infants characterized as difficult in temperament have distinctive acoustic cry characteristics. The latter result has generated a subsequent cry study designed to assess the relationship between qualitative and quantitative aspects of infant cries.