INFANT CRY ACOUSTICS AND MATERNAL RATINGS OF TEMPERAMENT

Amount of crying or fussiness has been associated with the concept of difficult temperament. In this study, we explored the associations bet ween cry acoustics and temperament characteristics across the first 12 weeks of life in a group of healthy full-term infants. Maternal ratin gs of 12-week temperament, particularly negative emotional reactivity, were significantly related to both neonatal and 12-week cry acoustics . In addition, two acoustic variables, duration of cry utterance and f undamental frequency, were stable over the first 12 weeks of life.