Crying patterns of Korean infants in institutions.

This study investigates whether the crying pattern of infants reared in institutions is different from those reared at home in the same cultural backgrounds. Ninety-five institutional infants and 143 home infants, aged 2-18 weeks were studied through diaries, recorded by children's care-givers or mothers. Results showed that the crying duration of the infants in institutions was almost double that of infants at home (86 vs 45 min/day) and contact period with the care-givers was half that of home infants (136 vs 279 min/day). In addition, the duration of periods when the babies were alone was much longer in the institution group (1089 vs 1002 min/day). There was a tendency for both groups of institution and home infants to cry more during the evening (from 18.00 to 24.00 h) but there was no definite peak of crying at any age except the slight increase of crying after 12 weeks for the institution group. When compared with research on Western infants, the daily crying durations of both institution and home infants fall short of those of their Western counterparts. The effect of care-giving style on the crying pattern, including physical proximity, is discussed.