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

Nobuaki Mizuguchi; Kenji Kato; Sho K Sugawara; Tatsuya Yoshimi; Yuta Goto; Kaori Takasu; Tadao Isaka

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1336126

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

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

Authors

Nobuaki Mizuguchi^#^{1

2

3}, Kenji Kato^#³, Sho K Sugawara⁴, Tatsuya Yoshimi³, Yuta Goto¹, Kaori Takasu⁵, Tadao Isaka^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan.
² Institute of Advanced Research for Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan.
³ Assistive Robot Center, National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, Obu, Aichi, Japan.
⁴ Neural Prosthetics Project, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵ Administrative Office, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan.
⁶ College of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

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.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors declare that this study received funding from Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article, or the decision to submit it for publication.