ROLE OF INFANT CRYING IN THE EARLY MOTHER-INFANT DIALOG

This study examines the communicative role of crying by assessing the ability of infants to indicate different degrees of distress in differ ent social circumstances. Behaviors of mother-infant pairs were observ ed in the home for 7-h periods when the infants were 2, 3, 4, and 5 wk old; and three weekly observations were made when the infants were 1 yr old. A Cry Responsiveness Index (CRI) was derived to quantify the d egree to which a baby cried differentially during each observation. Th is statistic showed significant individual differences. The CRI scores were correlated with maternal measures during the early weeks and neg atively correlated with ''mother ignore'' at one year. The CRI scores were unrelated to the total amount of crying. The results indicate tha t responsive infants have responsive mothers-or conversely, that respo nsive mothers have responsive infants. Thus, cry responsiveness is not a function of infant behavior alone but is inherently an expression o f the dynamics of the mother-infant interactional system.