Relationship between male infants' vocal responses to mother and stranger at three months and self-reported academic attainment and adjustment measures in adulthood.

This study explored whether 3-mo.-old male infants' differential vocal response to mother vs a female stranger, which has been related to cognitive and academic functioning up to 12 years of age, is also related to adult development. Of the 12 subjects who had been seen from infancy through 12 years, 10 were located at Ages 21 and 28 years and were asked about their high school grade point average, scores on the SAT, years of schooling, emotional adjustment, substance abuse, and if they were in a stable relationship by the age 28. Responses showed 3-mo.-olds' differential vocal response was related positively to high school grade point average, scores on the SAT, years of completed education by age 28, and stability of relationship by age 28, and negatively related to substance abuse. No relationship was found between differential vocal response and reported emotional problems. Results suggest that early infant social interactions may be linked to adult development or adjustment.

Reciprocity in mother-infant vocal interactions: relationship to the quantity of mothers' vocal stimulation.

A study of 147 mother-infant dyads revealed that the most talkative mothers did not allow their infants to initiate many conversations. The least talkative mothers ignored many of their infants' vocalizations. Mothers in the mid-level talking range demonstrated the greatest reciprocity, allowing their infants to initiate more conversations.

Differential gazing and vocal response to mother and stranger of full-term and preterm infants across age.

Full-term infants at both 2 and 3 months and preterm ones at 3 months from due date vocalized more to mother than to a stranger and gazed more at a stranger than the mother. Preterm infants at 3 months from birth, but 6 weeks from due date, did not show differential responding by any mode, indicating the importance of maturational rather than environmental factors in these behaviors.

Planned conception and infant functioning at age three months: a cross-cultural study.

The conceptions of 53 American and 54 Greek infants were categorized as planned or unplanned on the basis of mothers' reports. At age three months in both cultural groups, infants in the planned category showed higher levels of cognitive processing and attachment to their mothers than did infants in the unplanned category, as shown by their differential vocal responses to mothers versus a female stranger.

PIP: Female investigators observed 107 full-term, normal, home-reared, 3-month-old infants in their homes with their mothers present to determine whether the babies whose mothers planned their pregnancy had a higher differential vocal response to their mothers than to a female stranger than did babies whose mothers did not plan their pregnancy. They compared the reactions of 53 infants from Los Angeles, California, with those of 54 infants from Athens, Greece. Regardless of culture, infants who were a result of a planned pregnancy had a higher differential vocal response score and vocalized significantly more in response to their mothers than to the stranger than did infants who were the result of an unplanned pregnancy (p .01 and .001, respectively). These findings demonstrated the 3-month-old infant's cognitive capacity to differentiate the mother from the stranger and their preference for their mother. They also suggested that the mother's feelings toward the baby do indeed contribute to the quality of the relationship and the degree of reciprocity with the mother. Further, it appears that children whose conception is unplanned are at greater risk for maternal rejection and subsequent psychopathology than children whose conception is planned. Thus, psychologists and psychiatrists should study the degree of bonding between mother and child and, if required, try to strengthen the bonding in cases where the mother did not plan the child's conception and psychopathology exists.

Short-term stability of three-month-old infants' vocal response to mother vs stranger.

20 3-month-old infants' differential vocal responses (DVR) to their mother vs a female stranger were assessed during two sessions about 4 days apart. Significant test-retest reliabilities were found for the infants' combined DVR responses and for their responses to both mother and stranger.

Personality variables as assessed by the MMPI and their relationship to mother-infant interactional behaviors at age three months.

The present study examined whether maternal personality variables, as assessed on the MMPI, relate to early infant and maternal variables. The subjects were 14 low-risk preterm and 24 full-term 3-mo.-old infants and their mothers. A female experimenter visited each infant at home where the mother and the experimenter each took turns and talked to the baby for 3 min. Subsequently, each infant was given a differential vocal response score by taking the amount of time spent in nondistress vocalizing in response to the stranger from the time spent in similar vocalizing in response to the mother. Following the 3-min. interactions, the mother and infant were observed for 30 min. and several mother-infant behaviors were recorded. Finally, the mothers were administered the MMPI. Analysis showed that high scores on Scales 3, 6, and Ego Control were related to less favorable mother-infant interactions and high scores on the Femininity and Ego Control Scales were related to infants' low differential vocal response scores.

Differential functioning on the Illingworth by home- vs institution-reared 3-month-old infants.

The performance on the Illingworth of 32 3-mo.-old home-reared Greek infants was compared to that of 22 infants reared in a modern institution. Home-reared infants were superior to institutional infants in every aspect of development except on Manipulations (fine motor coordination). It is speculated that the superiority of the home infants is attributed to the quality of the mother/caretaker-infant relationship.

Infant Gesell scores vs. cognitive skills at age 12 years.

In an earlier study, it was found that infant performance on the Gesell correlated better with performance on nonverbal than verbal cognitive skills up to the age of 5 years. Recently, the same 26 male middle-class Ss, now 12 years old, were retested with the WISC-R, WRAT, and PPVT. Performance on the Gesell was found to relate significantly to WISC-R Performance IQ and to a lesser extent to PPVT IQ, but did not relate to WISC-R Verbal IQ nor to performance on the WRAT. The results suggest that the Gesell has a better predictive validity for nonverbal than verbal cognitive skills.

Mother-stranger discrimination in three-month-old infants and subsequent Gesell performance.

The amount of vocalization, motor activity, and smiling in response to vocal stimulation by the mother and by a stranger was recorded from 14 normal male infants when they were 3, 5, 7, and 9 months old. The Gesell Developmental Schedules were administered to them at age 9 months. High Gesell developmental quotient infants showed different vocalization and motor activity responses to the mother versus the stranger as early as 3 months. These differences diminished progressively to a minimum at 9 months. Low Gesell developmental quotient infants showed no differential responses to mother versus stranger. The results suggest that mother-stranger discrimination at age 3 months may be used as an indicator of subsequent cognitive development, and further suggest that bright babies may attain permanence for the mother's schema as early as 3 months of age.

Correlations between Gesell scores in infancy and performance on verbal and non-verbal tests in early childhood.

Since infant developmental tests are heavily loaded with perceptual-motor items and are relatively free of auditory-verbal items, it was hypothesized that performance on infant tests would correlate higher with those later tests which measure non-verbal skills and lower with those tests that measure mostly verbal skills. The Gesell performance of 26 normal, male white infants at 7, 9 and 15 mo. correlated significantly and consistently with performance on the Merrill-Palmer Scale at 27 mo. and the visual-motor channel of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities at 5 yr. and showed consistently non-significant correlations with the Stanford Binet at 3 yr., the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at 5 yr., and the auditory-vocal channel of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities at 5 yr.