Behavioral and environmental correlates of infant abuse in group- living pigtail macaques

• Published in: Infant behavior & development Vol. 21; no. 4; pp. 603 - 612
• Main Authors: Maestripieri, Dario, Carroll, Kelly A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 1998; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal ethology; Biological and medical sciences; development; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; infant abuse; Mammalia; parenting; primates; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; stress; style; Vertebrata; stress; development; style; primates; infant abuse; parenting; Macaca nemestrina; Violence; Monkey; Young animal; Stress; Maternal behavior; Social development; Play; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Social interaction; Mother young relation; Primates; Simioidea
• ISSN: 0163-6383; 1879-0453
• DOI: 10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90032-7

The present study investigated the context of occurrence of infant abuse and the behavior of abusive mothers and their infants in pigtail macaques ( Macaca nemestrina). Subjects were 8 abusive mothers with their infants and 8 control mother-infant pairs living in 3 captive social groups. The most common forms of abuse were infant crushing and dragging and the most common context of occurrence was social stress. Severe and mild abuse differed in the frequency but not in the type of abuse patterns. Abusive mothers had controlling parenting styles relative to nonabusive mothers, and abused infants played at a later age and less frequently than controls. This study replicates previous findings on the parenting styles of abusive macaque mothers and provides new evidence on the context of occurrence of abuse and its consequences for infant health and social development.