How, or how fast? Study examines fascinating cultural differences in how babies are calmed

A recent study comparing how mothers in the U.K. and Uganda soothe their crying babies found something surprising: Ugandan babies calm down faster, even though their moms take longer to respond.

On the surface, this flips the script on common Western parenting advice. We often hear that faster is better when it comes to calming a crying infant. But this research suggests that the manner in which a mother comforts her baby matters more than how quickly she does it.

Touch versus talk to calm babies

Researchers observed 147 real-life moments of distress in 82 infants across both countries. They focused on what mothers did in those moments, not just how quickly they reacted.

In both places, faster responses did help babies settle down. But here’s the twist: even though U.K. mothers typically responded more quickly, Ugandan babies calmed faster overall. That wasn’t random. The difference came down to the way mothers soothed their infants.

In Uganda, moms often used touch – holding, carrying, or breastfeeding – as their main method of comfort, even with older babies. In the U.K., mothers started with physical comfort when babies were young, but switched to using more words and less touch as their infants grew.

That shift in strategy seems to make a difference.

Culture shapes our parenting

The study was led by researchers from the DIPF Leibniz Institute in Germany, and Durham University in the U.K.. They wanted to understand how caregiving works in real life – outside of labs or parenting books – and across very different environments.

“Our findings show that maternal responsiveness is universally important. But how mothers respond, and the effectiveness of their strategies, varies in meaningful ways between cultures,” said Dr. Carlo Vreden of the DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education.

“Importantly, we are not making value judgments about which approach is better. Rather, we are highlighting that caregiving strategies are shaped by culture. It is not just about how quickly the mothers respond to their babies, but also the type of maternal soothing response which plays a crucial role in infant emotion regulation.”

In the U.K., many parenting norms are based on studies done in Western countries, often under very controlled conditions. But this doesn’t reflect the full picture of how most babies are raised around the world.

Professor Zanna Clay explained, “Most of what we know about babies’ early emotional development is based on studies conducted in Europe and North America. But of course, these Western settings don’t reflect the caregiving environments experienced by the majority of infants around the world, nor how they may have been historically.”

Babies stay calm despite slower responses

One principal reason why Ugandan mothers would take longer to reply is plain: they’re frequently engaged in manual labor, such as working in the fields or taking care of household chores outside. In contrast to high-income environments, mothers in rural Uganda typically cannot abandon everything the instant their baby begins crying.

“Uganda is an interesting place to study caregiving,” Clay said, “as infants are typically cared for by multiple different caregivers and their styles of caregiving culturally differ, such as prioritising more physical contact with their babies.”

Even with slower response times, Ugandan mothers’ reliance on touch – especially breastfeeding – seemed to have a calming effect. The babies got comforted in a way that worked well for them, even if it wasn’t immediate.

Professor Clay added, “Our study also highlights the balance between responding to your baby while also having to manage daily tasks, which can be more challenging in rural low-resource settings.”

Rethinking parenting advice

This research challenges the idea that there’s only one right way to raise emotionally healthy kids. It shows that parenting strategies can look different in different places – and still be effective.

“We’ve shown that Western ideas about optimal parenting don’t always apply in other settings,” said Dr. Vreden. “Even though the U.K. mums do seem to follow this sort of gold standard of responding as soon as possible, it’s the Ugandan children, who don’t get that quicker response, who actually recovered faster.”

“This emphasises the complexity of different strategies working in different ways and in different settings.”

Calm babies in real life

By watching what happens in real-life settings – not just in labs – researchers can get a clearer picture of what helps babies regulate their emotions. This matters for building parenting support programs that fit the realities of people’s lives, no matter where they live.

Future research may explore how these early caregiving approaches affect children as they grow and how parenting differs across even more cultures.

In the end, it’s not just about being fast – it’s about being effective. And effectiveness can look very different, depending on where you are.

The full study was published in the journal Developmental Psychology.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–