The who, when, and why of pacifier use

Mitev, Kaloyan, Frewin, Kelsey L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0632-9942, Augustinova, Maria, Niedenthal, Paula M., Rychlowska, Magdalena and Vanderwert, Ross E. (2024) The who, when, and why of pacifier use. Pediatric Research. ISSN 0031-3998

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Abstract

Background Social and familial consequences of pacifier use remain poorly understood. The present study attempts to shed more light on the characteristics of parents using pacifiers with their infants and to explore how pacifier use affects perceptions of infant emotionality, maternal stress, and parental efficacy. Methods The study sample consisted of 428 mothers (range: 17–49 years) of infants (0–36 months) who completed a comprehensive questionnaire assessing infant and parent characteristics as well as parenting practices and pacifier use. We compared attitudes toward pacifiers, parenting stress, children’s levels of reactivity and self-regulation, and maternal efficacy among Pacifier Users, Never-Users, and families that Tried-Pacifiers. Results The reported results reveal benefits of pacifier use for the family relationships, namely reduced parenting stress (p = 0.018), better parent-child dynamics (p  Conclusion Our findings highlight developmental benefits of pacifier use, a practice that is known to have both positive and negative long-term consequences for healthy child development. It is, therefore, important for health professionals to have discussions about the pros and cons of pacifier use with parents.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 18 Oct 2024 10:30
Last Modified: 18 Oct 2024 10:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97066
DOI: 10.1038/s41390-024-03540-6

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