1Hana Parent Information Center, Hana Child Clinic 2Department of Early Childhood Education, Gachon University
Corresponding Author:
Mi Ra Chung ,Tel: +82-31-750-8703, Email: mrchung@gachon.ac.kr
Received: July 1, 2012; Revised: July 6, 2012 Accepted: August 16, 2012.
ABSTRACT
This study examined the consciousness of husbands and wives on babies’ cries and its factors which have impacts on their emotional perceptions. For this study, infants’ cries were recorded with the participation of 136 pregnant women and 76 husbands, and they conducted self-evaluations regarding their emotional perceptions and personal characteristics. The stimulus used to exhibit the cries of infants were from eighteen recorded cry sample under three situations (hunger, pain, and mother’s absence) with six healthy infants (three male and three female) who are over six months. Also, this study dealt with the relationship between emotional assessment and the personal characteristics of mothers and fathers. As a result, the experience of child-rearing has a positive influence on the emotional cry perceptions of husbands and wives, and there was no sex difference in their emotional cry perceptions. A change of recognition, “being parents,” has impacts on emotional cry perceptions, but the major factors increasing these impacts depend on the physiological changes of pregnant women and their personal characteristics.