Vocal emotion expressions in infant‐directed singing: The impact of war trauma and maternal mental health and the consequences on infant development

Abstract

Maternal singing is considered vital to infant well-being. This study focuses on vocal emotion expressions in infant-directed singing among mothers in war conditions. It examines the questions: (a) how traumatic war events and mental health problems are associated with the content and valence of vocal emotion expressions and (b) how these emotion expressions are associated with infant development. The vocal material consists of songs sung by 50 Palestinian mothers who participated at delivery (T1) as well as when their infants were 6 (T2) and 18 (T3) months of age. These mothers reported traumatic war events (T1); depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (T2-T3); and infants' emotional, sensorimotor, and cognitive development (T2-T3). Student judges evaluated the valence and content of vocal emotion expressions in maternal infant-directed singing (playfulness-vivacity, fear, joy, sadness, love-tenderness, anger, and tension). Severe traumatic war events and depressive symptoms were associated with low positive and high negative vocal emotion expressions. High levels of playfulness and joy, as well as low levels of fear and tension, were associated with infant positive affectivity, while low levels of fear, anger, and tension were associated with advanced infant language skills.

RETRACTED: Cultivation and interpretation of students' psychological quality: Vocal psychological model

“…With the deepening of vocal music theory research, interdisciplinary knowledge is further infiltrating into the practice of vocal music teaching (1). Due to the particularity of vocal music teaching, the bridge between vocal music teaching and vocal music knowledge is getting closer and closer (2), we continue to develop and attach importance to vocal music knowledge in the process of learning and vocal music teaching, and gradually become a benchmark in the field of vocal music and even art (3), so the development and utilization of vocal music knowledge is the pace of the times, it can improve students' second-degree creation ability and understanding and expression ability of works, and it is also conducive to cultivating students' emotions, attitudes and values (4)(5)(6). In vocal music teaching, the smooth communication between teachers and students and students' learning attitude directly affects their singing performance, so the research on vocal music knowledge is an important way to improve the efficiency of vocal music teaching (7).…”

Associations between acoustic features of maternal speech and infants’ emotion regulation following a social stressor

“…Caregiver voices may also reflect their unique contributions to children's state regulation. For instance, Palestinian mothers with depressive symptoms and history of war trauma are rated by coders as having more negative and lower positive emotion when singing to their infants and their expression of fear and tension are associated with lower infant positive affectivity (Punamäki et al, 2020).…”

Associations between Acoustic Features of Maternal Speech and Infants’ Emotion Regulation following a Social Stressor

“…Caregiver voices may also reflect their unique contributions to children’s state regulation. For instance, Palestinian mothers with depressive symptoms and history of war trauma are rated by coders as having more negative and lower positive emotion when singing to their infants and their expression of fear and tension are associated with lower infant positive affectivity (Punamäki, Vänskä, Quota, Perko, & Diab, 2020).…”