乳児は養育者が泣いている赤ちゃんを慰めることを予測するのか？（Do infants expect caregivers to comfort crying babies?）

2026-09-11

2026-09-10 イリノイ大学アーバナ・シャンペーン校

イリノイ大学アーバナ・シャンペーン校の研究チームは、乳児が泣いているとき、養育者が慰めてくれることをどの程度予測しているのかを調べ、乳児期の社会的期待の形成過程を明らかにした。研究では、泣く乳児と養育者が慰める場面を繰り返し見せた後、養育者が慰める場合と慰めない場合の反応を比較した。その結果、生後約4か月の乳児では、養育者が泣き声に反応して慰めるという経験が、養育者の行動に対する期待と関連することが示された。一方、生後約2か月の乳児では同様の期待は明確ではなく、生後2～4か月の間に、養育者の反応を予測する社会的認知が発達する可能性が示唆された。研究は、乳児が単に泣き声に反応するだけでなく、日常的な養育経験から「他者が自分をどのように扱うか」という社会的期待を形成していくことを示すもの。乳児の社会的・情動的発達や、初期の親子関係を理解する重要な手掛かりとなる。

＜関連情報＞

生後6ヶ月、9ヶ月、12ヶ月時点における、養育者の慰め行動に対する乳児の期待と母親の抑うつ症状との関連性
Infants’ expectations about caregivers’ comforting behavior and associations with maternal depressive symptoms at 6, 9, and 12 months.

Hu, K., Kim, S., Jin, K.-s., Baillargeon, R., & McElwain, N. L.
Developmental Psychology Year: 2026
DOI:https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/dev0002209

We examined infants’ expectations about caregivers’ comforting behavior at 6, 9, and 12 months and assessed associations with maternal depressive symptoms. One hundred thirteen infants (47% female; 72% White, 13% Asian, 6% Black, 6% Latinx, 3% more than one race) and their mothers participated at one or more time points. In a violation-of-expectation task, infants watched video vignettes in which a caregiver either interrupted her household chore to comfort a crying baby (comfort event) or continued her work and ignored the baby (ignore event). Infants’ looking times were coded offline. Mothers reported on their depressive symptoms. Bootstrapped analyses of variance indicated that infants, on average, looked longer at the ignore than at the comfort event, suggesting that they expected the caregiver to engage in comforting behavior. Path analyses revealed concurrent associations, such that higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms at a given time point predicted lower expectations about comforting behavior at the same time point. The magnitude of these associations did not differ by time point. In sum, our results contribute to a growing literature on infants’ expectations about caregiving and provide the first evidence for maternal depressive symptoms as a concurrent predictor of poorer performance on a laboratory task assessing infants’ expectations about caregivers’ comforting behavior. Two possible mechanisms for this association are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)