Maternal Perceptions and Responsiveness to Cry in Armed Conflict Zones: Links to Child Behavior Problems

Crying is a typical infant behavior that activates parental caregiving behaviors, acting as “human alarms” important for the infant’s survival. When living under war-related threat, the auditory system may be sensitized given its importance for survival, potentially impacting maternal cry processing. Children living in armed-conflict zones are at increased risk for behavior problems, which may relate to both direct exposure and indirect effects through their parents’ perceptions and behaviors. This hypothesis was examined in a sample of mothers and their first-born children (aged 10–45 months) living in the Gaza vicinity area in Israel, chronically exposed to missile alarms (high-exposure; n = 45), and a comparison group (low-exposure; n = 86). Group differences in child behavior problems and maternal perceptions of and responsiveness to cry were investigated. A moderated indirect-effect of maternal cry perceptions on child behavior problems via maternal responsiveness to cry was examined. In the high-exposure group, children had more externalizing problems and mothers rated cries as more aversive. Maternal cry perception was indirectly related to child behavior problems via responsiveness to cry only in the high-exposure group: higher perceptions of cry as aversive or the child as distressed were related to faster responding to crying, and faster cry responsiveness was linked with fewer behavior problems. Results suggest that in armed-conflict zones with auditory warning signals, the parental caring system may be easily activated by cries due to the strong association between alarms and threat. Furthermore, children may need their mothers to react faster when feeling distressed, possibly because of the surrounding threat.