Across demographics and recent history, most parents sing to their infants and toddlers daily

Abstract

Music is universally prevalent in human society and is a salient component of the lives of young families. Here, we studied the frequency of singing and playing recorded music in the home using surveys of parents with infants ( N = 945). We found that most parents sing to their infant on a daily basis and the frequency of infant-directed singing is unrelated to parents’ income or ethnicity. Two reliable individual differences emerged, however: (i) fathers sing less than mothers and (ii) as infants grow older, parents sing less. Moreover, the latter effect of child age was specific to singing and was not reflected in reports of the frequency of playing recorded music. Last, we meta-analysed reports of the frequency of infant-directed singing and found little change in its frequency over the past 30 years, despite substantial changes in the technological environment in the home. These findings, consistent with theories of the psychological functions of music, in general, and infant-directed singing, in particular, demonstrate the everyday nature of music in infancy. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part I)’.

Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact

“…Notably, by focusing on musicality, the proposed model allows for the possibility that musicality may predate music. Moreover, alongside evidence that vocal cues of expressivity also drive the perception of emotion in music [5] and that pitch modulation plays a role in human mating [1], the model illustrates that musicality is important beyond the realm of music, playing a role in domains like infant-directed speech [6,13], courtship and other language abilities.…”

“…The authors show that perceptions of these emotions are similar across musicians and non-musicians, suggesting that the voice-specific acoustic manipulations tap into acoustic features that can be applied to potentially any carrier sounds, to be perceived as emotional. Contributing further to the link between voice and music, Yan et al [6] (critical topics (i), (ii) and (iv)) provide a look into the prevalence of parental vocal music directed towards infants, showing that most parents sing to their young children every day. Indeed, despite the increasing prevalence of technology in infants' daily lives, singing appears to remain the primary musical activity of mother-infant dyads.…”

The musical lives of young children in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Parents sing to their infants regardless of the gender of the child (Yan et al, 2021;Brodsky et al, 2020), socio-economic status (Yan et al, 2021;Fancourt & Perkins, 2018;Custodero, Rebello Britto & Brooks-Gunn, 2003;Brodsky et al, 2020) and ethnicity (Yan et al, 2021;Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003). While Custodero and colleagues (2003) found that parents with a level of education greater than high school were more likely to sing to their infants, this finding was not supported by either Fancourt and Perkins (2018) or Brodsky and colleagues (2020), who found that parental musical engagement was not influenced by level of education.…”

“…Several large-scale survey-based studies have examined aspects of musical parenting among families with children under 3 years old in the UK (Fancourt & Perkins, 2018), the USA (Custodero, Rebello Britto & Brooks-Gunn, 2003;Custodero & Johnston-Green, 2003;Yan et al, 2021) and Israel (Brodsky, Sulkin & Hefer, 2020). Based on responses from between 256 and 2250 participants, these studies show that most parents sing to their infants, with between 59% and 72% of mothers reporting that they sing to their infants on a daily basis (Custodero, Rebello Britto & Brooks-Gunn, 2003;Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003;Fancourt & Perkins, 2018;Yan et al, 2021). Smaller studies of parents with children under 2 years have had similar findings (Ilari, Moura & Bourscheidt, 2011;Young, 2008).…”

An itsy bitsy audience: Live performance facilitates infants’ attention and heart rate synchronization

“…Caregiver song is well-documented throughout recorded human history. In contemporary life, interactive singing remains a common element of caregiver-infant interactions across the globe despite the prevalence of recorded music (Mendoza & Fausey, 2021;Yan et al, 2021). Likewise, the popularity of baby musical programs (e.g., Kindermusik, Music Together), has steadily risen in recent decades (Drury & Fletcher-Watson, 2017), although many programs were cancelled or moved online during COVID-19 lockdowns.…”