Infant crying is crucial for infant survival, but can lead to a wide range of responses from caregivers, from nurturant to aggressive. Men and women with higher Child Abuse Potential (CAP) scores rate crying more negatively, and feel more hostile after hearing infant cries (Crouch et al. 2008). Together, these data indicate that infant crying may be a trigger for child abuse in certain adults, but what is the pathway that underlies this mechanism? We have previously laid the groundwork for a biopsychosocial model to understand this pathway (van Anders, Volling and Tolman, 2012; van Anders, Tolman, and Jainagaraj, 2014). The steroid hormone testosterone (T) may be a mechanism through which the switch from nurturance to aggression can be explained. High testosterone (T) levels have been associated with higher antagonistic aggression (Archer 1991, 1995; van Anders and Watson, 2006; van Anders et al. 2011), while lower T levels have been associated with parenting effort and nurturant behaviors (Gettler et al. 2011, van Anders et al. 2011). This study will further develop an innovative model for studying biopsychosocial pathways to child maltreatment and identify points for testing preventive interventions.
