Developmental outcome as a function of the goodness of fit between the infant's cry characteristics and the mother's perception of her infant's cry.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether the "goodness of fit" between infant cry characteristics and the mother's perception of the cry is related to developmental outcome at 18 months of age.

DESIGN

This was a prospective, longitudinal study from birth to 18 months performed in a blinded manner.

SETTING

The study was conducted in a maternity hospital, including normal and special care nurseries and a laboratory for developmental follow-up.

PATIENTS

The 121 term and preterm infants and their mothers were selected to meet medical criteria.

MEASUREMENT

Acoustic analysis of 1-month infant cry and the mother's perception of the same cry was used to divide subjects into four groups representing matches and mismatches between infant cry characteristics and maternal cry perception. Primary outcome measures of cognitive, language, motor, and neurologic outcome were administered at 18 months. Caretaking environment measures were also recorded.

RESULTS

Statistically significant (P < .05) findings showed that matched groups scored higher on measures of language and cognitive performance than infants in the mismatch groups, with a particular advantage for infants in the matched group in which mothers accurately perceived the higher-pitched cries of their infants. There were no differences between the groups in biologic or sociodemographic factors. Group differences were observed in social support and maternal self-esteem.

CONCLUSIONS

Matches and mismatches between infant cry characteristics at 1 month and the mother's perception of the cry are related to cognitive and language outcome at 18 months in term and preterm infants. This relation is probably due to transactional processes in which developmental outcome is affected by the clarity of the infants' signals and by the ability of the mother to accurately perceive her infant's signals. The mother's ability to read her infant's cues may be affected by factors such as social support and self-esteem.