St James-Roberts I, Conroy S, Wilsher K
Thomas Coram Research Unit, University of London, UK.
Child Care Health Dev. 1998 Sep;24(5):353-76. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2214.2002.00089.x.
A community sample was screened to select three groups of infants and their mothers according to how much the babies cried at 6 weeks of age, the peak age for infant crying. The three groups--of moderate (n = 55), evening (n = 38) and persistent criers (n = 67) and their mothers--were assessed by diary, observation and questionnaire measures of mother and infant characteristics and interactions at 6 weeks and 5 months of infant age. At 6 weeks, mothers of persistent criers spent more time interacting with and physically stimulating their babies. Below-optimum maternal sensitivity/affection was linked to moderately increased crying in the infants overall. However, most mothers of persistent criers showed optimum sensitivity and affection, while no significant links between maternal sensitivity/affection and infant crying were found in the persistent crying group. By 5 months, when infant crying declined, the range and size of differences between mothers of persistent criers and other mothers declined. Home observations and a standard play measure failed to show group differences in maternal sensitivity, affection and intrusiveness at this age. The findings show that persistent infant crying in the early months often occurs in spite of high quality maternal care, so that in most cases the crying is probably not due to inadequate parenting. The need to distinguish general community cases from those at social or medical risk is emphasized and the findings' implications for professionals are discussed.
通过对一个社区样本进行筛查，根据婴儿在6周龄（婴儿哭闹的高峰期）时的哭闹程度，挑选出三组婴儿及其母亲。这三组分别是中度哭闹组（n = 55）、晚间哭闹组（n = 38）和持续性哭闹组（n = 67）及其母亲，在婴儿6周龄和5月龄时，通过日记、观察以及问卷调查等方式，对母婴特征及互动情况进行评估。在6周龄时，持续性哭闹组婴儿的母亲与婴儿互动以及对其进行身体刺激的时间更多。总体而言，母亲敏感性/情感低于最佳水平与婴儿哭闹适度增加有关。然而，持续性哭闹组的大多数母亲表现出了最佳的敏感性和情感，并且在该组中未发现母亲敏感性/情感与婴儿哭闹之间存在显著关联。到5月龄时，婴儿哭闹减少，持续性哭闹组母亲与其他母亲之间的差异范围和程度也有所减小。家庭观察以及一项标准游戏测试未显示出该年龄段母亲在敏感性、情感和侵扰性方面存在组间差异。研究结果表明，尽管母亲给予了高质量的照料，但婴儿在最初几个月的持续性哭闹仍经常出现，因此在大多数情况下，哭闹可能并非源于养育不足。强调了区分一般社区案例与有社会或医疗风险案例的必要性，并讨论了研究结果对专业人士的启示。
