The effects of mother–infant singing on emotional closeness, affect, anxiety, and stress hormones

Abstract

Among mammals who invest in the production of a relatively small number of offspring, bonding is a critical strategy for survival. Mother–infant bonding among humans is not only linked with the infant’s survival but also with a range of protective psychological, biological, and behavioral responses in both mothers and infants in the post-birth period and across the life span. Anthropological theories suggest that one behavior that may have evolved with the aim of enhancing mother–infant bonding is infant-directed singing. However, to date, despite mother–infant singing being practiced across cultures, there remains little quantitative demonstration of any effects on mothers or their perceived closeness to their infants. This within-subjects study, comparing the effects of mother–infant singing with other mother–infant interactions among 43 mothers and their infants, shows that singing is associated with greater increases in maternal perceptions of emotional closeness in comparison to social interactions. Mother–infant singing is also associated with greater increases in positive affect and greater decreases in negative affect as well as greater decreases in both psychological and biological markers of anxiety. This supports previous findings about the effects of singing on closeness and social bonding in other populations. Furthermore, associations between changes in closeness and both affect and anxiety support previous research suggesting associations between closeness, bonding, and wider mental health.

How group singing facilitates recovery from the symptoms of postnatal depression: a comparative qualitative study

“…Further, as discussed above, singing emerged as a tool to facilitate a feeling of closeness or bonding between mother and baby, which can be compromised when a women is experiencing symptoms of PND [ 51 ]. This supports Kreutz’s argument that singing may have emerged to enhance social bonding and mutual attachment [ 28 ] and echoes findings from our recent study demonstrating that singing, but not chatting, is associated with increases in maternal perception of emotional closeness with their baby [ 57 ]. Finally, our study resonates with the so-called ‘functional outcomes’ of singing identified in a previous study [ 26 ], with singing appearing to be a tool that can be modified to meet participants’ emotional needs in their particular context.…”

An Agenda for Best Practice Research on Group Singing, Health, and Well-Being

“…Decreased salivary cortisol has been found in low-stress singing conditions (such as rehearsals), while high-stress conditions (such as performances) have been connected with increased cortisol levels (Beck, Cesario, Yousefi, & Enamoto, 2000;Fancourt et al, 2015). Short-term group singing has shown reductions in cortisol in cancer patients, carers, and bereaved carers (Fancourt et al, 2016), and mothers with postnatal depression symptoms, although in this study this was not indicated by cortisone (also involved in the stress response) (Fancourt & Perkins, 2018). This research indicates that singing may affect us biologically by modulating the stress response through reductions in cortisol, although this has not been shown across all biomarkers.…”

Dingle et al_Agenda for Best Practice Research in Group Singing Health and Wellbeing_Music & Science in press

“…Decreased salivary cortisol has been found in low-stress singing conditions (such as rehearsals), while high-stress conditions (such as performances) have been connected with increased cortisol levels (Beck et al, 2000;Fancourt et al, 2015). Short-term group singing has shown reductions in cortisol in cancer patients, carers and bereaved carers (Fancourt et al, 2016), and mothers with postnatal depression (PND) symptoms, although in this study this was not indicated by cortisone (also involved in the stress response) (Fancourt & Perkins, 2018). This research indicates that singing may affect us biologically by modulating the stress response through reductions in cortisol, although this has not been shown across all biomarkers.…”