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Adoption and maltreatment of foster infants by rhesus macaque abusive mothers
Author(s) -
Maestripieri Dario,
Megncy L.,
Jovanovic Tanja
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-7687.00122
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , rhesus macaque , child abuse , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , medical emergency , medicine , immunology
In this study we investigated whether infant characteristics play a causal role in the occurrence of maternal abuse of offspring in rhesus macaques ) Macaca mulatta ) and whether abusive mothers differ from controls in their tendency to adopt alien infants in a cross‐fostering procedure. To this end, 13 infants born to mothers with a previous history of infant abuse were cross‐fostered shortly after birth with infants born to nonabusive mothers and subsequently observed for 12 weeks. Abusive mothers were significantly more likely to reject foster infants than control mothers were. When adoption was successful, all of the abusive mothers maltreated their foster infants whereas none of the control mothers exhibited infant abuse. These findings suggest that infant characteristics do not play an important causal role in the occurrence of infant abuse and that abusive mothers may differ from nonabusive ones in maternal motivation or reactivity to stressful procedures.