Infant cries are complex stimuli, capable of eliciting both altruistic and aggressive behaviors in others. Cries of preterm infants have been described as aversive, and as potential elicitors of child abuse. Children's response patterns to preterm and full-term infant cries were examined. Their behavior on hearing a cry in the next room, their response to mother and child in their presence, ratings of their own feelings upon hearing the cries, and their verbalizations about the cries were obtained. Children's self-reports of feelings of empathy, verbalized intentions to help, observed affective arousal and actual helping responses were common responses to cries at all ages. In addition, there were significant age increases in caregiving interventions toward crying infants. Children showed similar feelings of empathy and similar rates of prosocial interventions in response to preterm and full-term infant cries. Yet, most children readily distinguished between the two cry types along dimensions of abnormality and illness.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter