Differences in the Angry Behaviors of Precrawling and Crawling Infants

Abstract

With the onset of independent mobility, infants are able to freely explore the environment, providing many new opportunities for social interaction and physical experiences. Novel contexts can be discovered and new goals may be set, resulting in increased opportunities for nonfulfillment of those goals, possibly leading to frustration and anger. A mixed-methods approach was used to study the changes that occur in anger with the onset of crawling. A paired samples t-test revealed significant differences in anger between precrawlers (M=1.65, SD=.36) and crawlers (M=2.42, SD=.47), with the crawlers demonstrating higher mean anger scores on the Scales of Socioemotional Development after four weeks of independent crawling; t(21)=-7.8, p = .000. A longitudinal collective case study approach revealed that infant anger increased in intensity after one and three weeks of crawling experience, then declined slightly after six weeks.