Time patterns in parent-child interactions in a trobriand village (Papua New Guinea)

In June and July 1992 parent-infant interactions were analyzed among the inhabitants of Tauwema (Trobriand Islands), who represent a traditionally living society. Parent-infant interactions were continuously registered over a period of 7 days in 4 families with infants of 1, 2, 5, and 11 months of age using a microelectronic actometer. Based on self-demand feeding, a remarkable synchronization between infant's and mother's movements occurred during both day and night. Despite the fact that the father also slept near the baby in the night no father-infant correlation was found. Among the children aged 5 and 11 months no nocturnal response of both parents' and siblings' movements relative to infant's activity was found. Power spectra revealed inter-individual differences of the rhythmicity patterns of infants and mothers depending on the infant's age. E.g. there is a dominant ultradian frequency of about 8 hours in the activity of the 2-month baby, in the 5-month-old infant the circadian frequency predominates. The mean sleep duration of the observed infants is between 9 and 12 hours per day. This is considerably less than the duration stated for infants in Western countries.