Title:
Daycare caregiver responses to crying: associations with infant age and gender
Author:
Alyssa De Grace
Thesis Advisor:
Ellie D. Brown
Thesis Advisor:
Rachel Grover
Thesis Advisor:
Jason Prenoveau
Committee Member:
Martin F. Sherman
Degree Granting Institution:
Loyola University Maryland--College of Arts and Sciences
Place:
Baltimore (Md.)
Publisher:
Loyola University Maryland
Date Created:
2013
Type of Resource:
text
Genre:
thesis
Language:
eng
Format:
application/pdf
Physical Form:
electronic
Digital Source:
born digital
Abstract:
Research indicates that parents respond to infant crying in a multitude of ways; however, research on daycare caregiver approaches is still in its initial stages. While there is plenty of literature on how mothers respond to their children, few studies have explored daycare caregivers even though they are beginning to become primary care providers for children with working parents. This study examined 36 infants between the ages of two months and two years at an average quality daycare in a suburban town in Pennsylvania. The objective was to determine typical cry patterns and caregiver responses occurring with non-parental childcare providers. On average, infants in this study cried about once per day, and an average cry lasted about a minute and a half. It was also hypothesized that caregivers would differ in the frequency and style of soothing approaches based on infant gender and age, similarly to parents'patterns. Results suggest that the style, but not the quantity of soothing, may differ with infant gender and age. Distractive techniques (e.g. use of a pacifier, providing a comfort object) appear to be used more often with male infants than female infants; however, infant gender does not appear to relate to any other form of caregiver soothing. Further, distraction seems to be used most often among the youngest children, gradually lessening with infant age.
Subject:
Electronic dissertations
Degree:
Master of Psychology
Level:
Master
Discipline:
Psychology
Restrictions on Access:
Author has given permission to make this work available online to Loyola Notre Dame Library basic constituency.
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Identifier:
DeGraceA-13
