Maternal perception of infant emotion from birth through 18 months

This study reports on maternal perceptions of emotion in their own infants. Concurrent and retrospective estimates of emotion onset were obtained from 597 mothers of infants who varied in age from 1 through 18 months. Information was also obtained about the frequency with which mothers perceived emotions in themselves and in their infants. Unexpectedly, a substantial number of emotions were reported in young infants. During the first three postnatal infant months, a majority of mothers reported the presence of five of the 11 emotion categories studied (interest, joy, surprise, anger, and distress). Another study of 26 mothers of newborns found similar results concerning the prevalence of perceived emotions. Age trends and possible explanations for the high frequency of perceived emotions in early infancy are discussed. An important issue is to what extent mothers relied on infant behaviors and to what extent they made use of contextual cues.