Studies in the USA rarely find differences in the social-vocal behaviors of male versus female infants, and when such differences are found, they favor females. The present study examined whether this pattern would hold true in Greece, where the parental preference for boys over girls could differentially affect rearing behavior. The subjects were normal 3-month-old infants, 39 reared by their parents and 25 reared in an institution. Infants' vocal interaction pattern was assessed by Roe's Differential Vocal Responsiveness (DVR) to mother/caretaker versus a stranger during 3-min social-vocal interactions. This technique has previously been found to relate to later cognitive development. The results showed that home-reared males had higher DVR scores than home-reared females, whereas no such sex difference was obtained for the institution infants. Also, the affective voice quality rating of mothers talking to their sons was higher than that of mothers talking to their daughters, whereas no such difference existed in the way caretakers talked to the institution infants. The results suggest that early differences in vocal-interactional patterns, and possibly cognitive processing, may be attributable to differences in parental behavior.
This article presents data from four independent studies on the relationship between quantity of maternal vocal stimulation during naturalistic conditions and 3‐month‐old infants' cognitive processing, as assessed by the infants' differential vocal responsiveness (DVR) to their mother versus a female stranger. In two of the studies, the subjects were full‐term American infants whose parents came from a wide socio‐educational and ethnic background. In the third study, the subjects were low‐risk preterm infants of White American parents. In the fourth study the subjects were full‐term infants in Greece. The results from all four studies showed a curvilinear relationship between DVR and maternal vocal stimulation during naturalistic conditions. High DVR was associated with a mid‐level amount of maternal vocal stimulation, whereas low DVR was associated with both least and most maternal vocal stimulation. These studies raise the question of possible adverse effects of social overstimulation on infant development.
The conceptions of 53 American and 54 Greek infants were categorized as planned or unplanned on the basis of mothers' reports. At age three months in both cultural groups, infants in the planned category showed higher levels of cognitive processing and attachment to their mothers than did infants in the unplanned category, as shown by their differential vocal responses to mothers versus a female stranger.
A study of 147 mother-infant dyads revealed that the most talkative mothers did not allow their infants to initiate many conversations. The least talkative mothers ignored many of their infants' vocalizations. Mothers in the mid-level talking range demonstrated the greatest reciprocity, allowing their infants to initiate more conversations.
The performance on the Illingworth of 32 3-mo.-old home-reared Greek infants was compared to that of 22 infants reared in a modern institution. Home-reared infants were superior to institutional infants in every aspect of development except on Manipulations (fine motor coordination). It is speculated that the superiority of the home infants is attributed to the quality of the mother/caretaker-infant relationship.
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