What is it about?
How mothers respond to their babies’ cries plays an important role in shaping early emotional development. While this is likely to be a universal trend, most research has focused on Western settings, which do not represent the way most children are cared for globally. In our study, we addressed this by comparing naturally-occuring mother–infant interactions in rural Uganda and the United Kingdom. We observed 82 babies at 3 and 6 months of age. We analysed naturalistic video recordings collected in their homes to see how quickly and in what ways mothers responded to infant distress, and how this influenced how fast babies calmed down. We found that UK mothers tended to respond more quickly, but Ugandan babies actually recovered from distress faster. We think this shows that the mother's style of response may matter more than just her speed alone, and that cultural practices influence how infants learn to manage their emotions. We also found that mothers in both cultures adapted their strategies as their babies grew, though in different ways. Mothers in Uganda mostly used breastfeeding to calm their babies, while mothers in the UK used more verbal ways to soothe. These results broaden our understanding of how diverse caregiving approaches shape healthy emotional development.
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Why is it important?
Our study is important as it challenges long-standing assumptions rooted in Western models of parenting by showing that maternal promptness is not the only factor influencing how infants manage their emotions. When we look at different cultural practises, we found that the type of soothing behaviour was important for helping babies regulate distress, something that is culturally shaped. While both UK and Ugandan mothers soothed their babies at three months with tactile contact, like breastfeeding, UK mothers tended to use more verbal reassurance and less tactile contact as babies grew older. By comparison, Ugandan mothers continued to rely on tactile strategies, particularly breastfeeding, even with older infants. Our study highlights cultural differences in parenting and reveals that how babies are soothed matters more than how fast
Perspectives
We found many similarities but some fascinating differences with how mothers in Uganda soothed their babies as compared to the UK. Breastfeeding was the primary soothing strategy in Uganda, where infants recovered more quickly- this suggests breastfeeding is a powerful form of reassurance. In the UK, mothers started to use verbal soothing as their babies got older, which we think also prepares them for this form of reassurance common in Western societies.
Zanna Clay
Durham University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Maternal responsiveness to infant distress: A cross-cultural investigation in Uganda and the United Kingdom., Developmental Psychology, September 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/dev0002038.
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