PRENATAL MATERNAL REACTIVITY TO INFANT CRIES PREDICTS POSTNATAL PERCEPTIONS OF INFANT TEMPERAMENT AND MARRIAGE APPRAISAL

In a sample of 60 primiparous women, cardiac response and ratings of s ubjective aversiveness to recordings of unfamiliar infant cries were s tudied at 32 weeks' gestation. Regression analyses were used to examin e relations between cardiac acceleration and subjective aversiveness a nd 3 groups of postnatal dependent variables: perception of infant tem perament, the mother's emotional state, and her appraisal of her marri age. Mothers who prenatally rated the cry recordings as more aversive postnatally described their 3-month-old infants as more fussy/difficul t and unpredictable. With statistical control for prenatal variation o n the emotional state and marital outcome measures, cardiac accelerati on predicted later marital quality. Women who showed greater cardiac a cceleration to the cries described their postnatal marital relationshi ps more negatively.