Maternal frustration, emotional and behavioural responses to prolonged infant crying

Barr, Ronald G.; Fairbrother, Nichole; Pauwels, Julie; Green, James; Chen, Mandy; Brant, Rollin

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.08.012

Cited by 35 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Crying is one of the most intense emotional expressions in humans (Wassiliwizky et al 2017). While basal tears lubricate the eyes of many animals, most psychologists ascribe the display of emotional crying or weeping as unique to humankind (Barr et al 2014;Gračanin et al 2018), with which many ethologists disagree (De Waal 2019;Masson and McCarthy 1995). Early evolutionary theory did not assign a function to this shedding of tears as Darwin (1872) regarded it as a purposeless by-product of evolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gender-specific impact of emotional tears

et al. 2019

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The purpose of crying has recently become a topic of interest, with evidence supporting its interpersonal functions. The assumption that tears not only express a need for help, but in reaction also foster willingness to help in an observer, has received preliminary empirical support. The current study replicated previous work using a within-subject design with 140 subjects (50% female) who were exposed to images depicting male and female individuals crying, with half of both displaying visible tears and the others not displaying tears. Novel is our comparison of willingness to help across all possible gender combinations of tear display and observer. Potential mediation by perceived helplessness, friendliness, and connectedness of the depicted person was tested in male and female participants separately. We replicated the strong effect of tears on willingness to help, and showed this effect to be less potent for male dyads than for female or mixed ones, which is new to the literature. Perceived helplessness mediated the link between crying and helping, whereas perceived connectedness seemed only relevant for female participants, and perceived friendliness was not significant. Possible origins and implications of a differential gender function of crying are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The gender-specific impact of emotional tears

et al. 2019

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“…They are associated with interactional problems within the caregiverinfant dyad (Zero-to-Three 2005, DGKJP 2007, Postert et al 2012, Bolten 2013) and often with a disturbed caregiver-infant relationship, severe parental impairment, frustration and sometimes even maltreatment (Forsyth et al 1985, Papoušek and von Hofacker 1998, von Hofacker and Papousek 1998, DeGangi et al 2000, Barr et al 2006, Barr et al 2014. Regulation problems are also assumed to be important early markers for subsequent clinical syndromes and disorders in infants based on associations with a variety of later unfavourable childhood outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal anxiety versus depressive disorders: specific relations to infants' crying, feeding and sleeping problems

Petzoldt

Wittchen

Einsle

et al. 2015

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Primiparous mothers with anxiety disorders may be more prone to anxious misinterpretations of crying and feeding situations leading to an escalation of mother-infant interactions. The relation between maternal depressive and infant sleeping problems may be better explained by a transmission of unsettled maternal sleep to the fetus during pregnancy or a lack of daily structure and bedtime routine with the infant. Maternal disorders prior to pregnancy require more attention in research and clinical practice.

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“…Our study used a simulator infant that cried during most of the interaction episode, unresponsive to soothing attempts by the expectant parent. This setup imitates a natural situation, as most parents have to deal with their infant crying unsoothably at times (Barr et al, 2014;Barr, Paterson, MacMartin, Lehtonen, & Young, 2005), even if the infant does not have a difficult temperament or medical condition (Lin et al, 2019). Although suitable for a standardized first study of this kind, the situation is limited and does not generalize to most caregiving situations in which infants do respond to parental (soothing) behavior.…”

Section: Role Of the Infantmentioning

confidence: 99%