Early Child Development and Care Vol. 178, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 15–39 ISSN 0300-4430 (print)/ISSN 1476-8275 (online)/08/010015–25 © 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/03004430600601115 Caregiving in counterpoint: reciprocal influences in the musical parenting of younger and older infants Lori A. Custodero* and Elissa A. Johnson-Green Teachers College, Columbia University, USA Taylor and Francis Ltd GECD_A_160094.sgm 10.1080/03004430600601115 Early Childhood Development and Care 0300-4430 (print)/1476-8275 (online) Original Article 2006 Taylor & Francis 00 0000002006 LoriCustodero lac66@columbia.edu In a national (US) telephone survey of parents of four-month-old to six-month-old infants (n = 2250), 904 respondents answered the question ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me about how or why you use music with your baby?’ Qualitative analyses of responses generated descriptors, which were applied to Bornstein’s four caregiving domains to ascertain music’s role in parenting infants. Findings indicated a preponderance of Social Caregiving and a merging of Material with Nurturant caregiving, showing the use of music with young infants to be primary and basic. Study 2 examines data from a follow-up written survey with the same participant pool. In responses to the same question from parents with infants 10–16 months old (n = 339), analyses revealed an even distribution between three domains: Social, Material, and a new merging of Nurturant with Didac- tic—indicating that parents were responding to children’s familiar musical behavior with teaching as well as socializing. Keywords: Caregiving; Development; Family; Infants; Music; Parenting Introduction Social encounters and cognitive growth are inextricably linked in infancy, as human interactions contribute to self-defining dispositions (Erikson, 1993) and serve to prime synaptic connections (Siegel, 1999). Vital to healthy development, the parenting of infants is a reciprocal process: infants invite parenting strategies through their overt receptivity, demonstrated by affective signs of happiness, contentment and appeasement of distress; and, as infants develop, parenting changes in response to children’s changing physical and emotional needs (Maccoby, * Corresponding author. Teachers College, Columbia University, Music and Music Education Box 139, 525 West 120 th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA. Email: Custodero@tc.edu