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. 2024 Mar 27:15:1336126.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1336126. eCollection 2024.

Age and parous-experience dependent changes in emotional contagion for positive infant sounds

Nobuaki Mizuguchi #  1   2   3 , Kenji Kato #  3 , Sho K Sugawara  4 , Tatsuya Yoshimi  3 , Yuta Goto  1 , Kaori Takasu  5 , Tadao Isaka  2   6
Affiliations

Age and parous-experience dependent changes in emotional contagion for positive infant sounds

Nobuaki Mizuguchi et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: Emotional contagion is achieved by inferring and emotionally resonating with other persons' feelings. It is unclear whether age-related changes in emotional contagion for infant sounds are modulated by the experience of childbirth or childcare. This study aims to evaluate changes in inference and emotional resonance for positive and negative infant sounds (laughter and crying) among women, based on age and parous experience.

Methods: A total of 241 women (60 young nulliparous, 60 young parous, 60 old nulliparous, and 61 old parous) completed a web-based questionnaire. After listening to three types of infant sounds (laughter, cooing, and crying), participants responded with their valence for hearing infant sounds and estimated infant valence on an 11-point Likert scale.

Results: The analysis for emotional resonance revealed that the correlation coefficient between self and estimated infant valences was greater in young parous and old nulliparous women than in young nulliparous women, in laughter and cooing sounds. However, correlation coefficients for crying did not differ among any of the four groups.

Conclusion: The degree of emotional resonance for infant valence increased depending on age and parous-experience for positive infant sounds.

Keywords: emotion; empathy; valence; voice; well-being; women.

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Conflict of interest statement

This work was a part of collaborative research (kando project) with Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. However, the company was not involved in the writing of this article nor the decision to submit it for publication. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematics of experimental design and the list of questions.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The preference for infants across groups. 10 indicates “extremely like” and 0 indicates “extremely dislike.” Medians, interquartile ranges, 95% confidence intervals of the median, and individual plots are shown. ** indicates p < 0.01 with the Bonferroni correction.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Correlational results. (A) Relationship between self and estimated infant positive valence for infant laughter. (B) Relationship between self and estimated infant positive valence for infant cooing. (C) Relationship between self and estimated infant negative valence for infant crying. * and ** Indicate p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 with the Bonferroni correction, respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean results of self and estimated valance. (A) Self positive valence for infant laughter. (B) Self positive valence for infant cooing. (C) Self negative valence for infant crying. (D) Estimated infant positive valence for infant laughter. (E) Estimated infant positive valence for infant cooing. (F) Estimated infant negative valence for infant crying. Medians, interquartile ranges, 95% confidence intervals of the median, and individual plots are shown. * and ** Indicate p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 with the Bonferroni correction, respectively.
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