論文

国際誌
2016年5月

Child Odors and Parenting: A Survey Examination of the Role of Odor in Child-Rearing

PLOS ONE
  • Masako Okamoto
  • ,
  • Mika Shirasu
  • ,
  • Rei Fujita
  • ,
  • Yukei Hirasawa
  • ,
  • Kazushige Touhara

11
5
開始ページ
e0154392
終了ページ
記述言語
英語
掲載種別
研究論文(学術雑誌)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0154392
出版者・発行元
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Parental caregiving is critical for the survival of our young and continuation of our species. In humans, visual and auditory signals from offspring have been shown to be potent facilitators of parenting. However, whether odors emitted by our young also influence human parenting remains unclear. To explore this, we conducted a series of questionnaire surveys targeting parents with children under 6 years old. First, we collected episodes on experiencing odors/ sniffing various parts of a child's body (n = 507). The prevalence of experiencing events described in those episodes was examined in a separate survey (n = 384). Based on those results, the Child Odor in Parenting scale (COPs) was developed, and subsequently used in the main survey (n = 888). We found COPs to have adequate content validity, concurrent validity, and reliability. Responses to the COPs demonstrated that parents, especially mothers with infants, are aware of odors from their offspring, and actively seek them in daily child-rearing. The factor structure and content of the COPs items indicated that child odors have both affective and instrumental roles. Affective experiences induce loving feeling and affectionate sniffing, while instrumental experiences pertain to specific hygienic needs. The head was the most frequent source of affective experiences, and the child's bottom of instrumental. Each was experienced by more than 90% of the mothers with a child below 1 year of age. Affective experiences significantly declined as the child grew older, possibly associated with the decline of physical proximity between parents and child. This age-related decline was not prominent for instrumental experiences, except for the bottom, which significantly declined after 3 years of age. The present findings suggest that child odors play roles in human parenting, and that their nature and significance change during the course of a child's development.

リンク情報
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154392
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27138751
PubMed Central
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4854394
Web of Science
https://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=JSTA_CEL&SrcApp=J_Gate_JST&DestLinkType=FullRecord&KeyUT=WOS:000375675700030&DestApp=WOS_CPL
ID情報
  • DOI : 10.1371/journal.pone.0154392
  • ISSN : 1932-6203
  • PubMed ID : 27138751
  • PubMed Central 記事ID : PMC4854394
  • Web of Science ID : WOS:000375675700030

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