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Commentary: Response to commentary by Davis and Kramer

Bilgin, Ayten, Wolke, Dieter (2021) Commentary: Response to commentary by Davis and Kramer. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, . pp. 1-3. ISSN 0021-9630. (doi:10.1111/jcpp.13439) (KAR id:88089)

Abstract

Davis and Kramer (2021) in their commentary on our study (Bilgin & Wolke, 2020) state that we ‘argue that leaving an infant to “cry it out”, rather than responding to the child’s cries, had no adverse effects on mother‐infant attachment at 18 months’ (Davis & Kramer, 2021, p. 1). Instead, we wrote that ‘contemporary practice by some parents to occasionally or often “leaving infant to cry it out” during the first 6 months was not associated with adverse behavioural development and attachment at 18 months’ (p. 8). Based on the empirical findings of our observation study, we suggested that ‘increased use of “leaving to cry it out” with age may indicate differential responding by mothers to aid the development of infant self‐regulation’ (p. 8). Indeed, in an editorial of our study, the joint editor of this journal concluded that ‘Bilgin and Wolke responsibly conclude that there is little reason to make definitive pronouncements to parents of young infants about how much to let them cry it out, given that both the attachment theory (responding promptly early promotes security) and learning theory (ignoring crying prevents dependency) formulations were unsupported by their findings’ (Zeanah, 2020, p. 1172).

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/jcpp.13439
Uncontrolled keywords: infant crying, attachment
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Ayten Bilgin
Date Deposited: 13 May 2021 16:20 UTC
Last Modified: 01 Dec 2021 23:10 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/88089 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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