INFANT CRYING, RISK STATUS AND SOCIAL SUPPORT IN FAMILIES OF PRETERM AND TERM INFANTS

Infant crying influences the caregiver and the broader caregiving envi ronment. In this study, cry acoustics were recorded and acoustically a nalyzed from a sample of fullterm and preterm infants at 40 weeks gest ational age, along with the medical risk and socioeconomic status (SES ) of the family. Following factor analysis of the cry acoustics, cry f actors, along with medical risk and SES were used to predict patterns of social support in the informal (family, friends) and formal (health care providers) social support networks at 44 weeks gestational age. One cry factor, temporal patterning, indicative of the influence of re spiratory factors on the infant's cry, predicted a significant amount of variance in the amount of support from the informal network, beyond that predicted from medical risk and SES. Medical risk alone predicte d the amount of contact with the formal network, and SES predicted sat isfaction with help from the formal network. There were different patt erns of relationship between cry acoustics and social support for fami lies with term and preterm infants, indicating that caregivers may int erpret and respond to different information in the acoustics of their infants' cries. These findings have implications for understanding how infant crying and behavior influence the caregiving environment and f or the clinical management of early cry problems in families with infa nts differing in risk status. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.