Many people think that all mothers view their children as "beautiful," and that the actual attractiveness of their child has no affect on their behavior; however, there are many studies that show that infant attractiveness does have an effect on maternal behavior. Researchers have found that mothers are more affectionate toward attractive infants, and that fathers participation in caregiving was positively correlated to their infant's attractiveness (Parke et al, 1977).

A recent study by Langlois, Ritter, Casey, and Sawin (1995) also investigated this phenomenon. A group of 144 mothers, who were still in the hospital after giving birth to their children, were observed while feeding and playing with their infants; they were observed again when the infants were three months old. Questionnaires were also given to assess the mothers' attitudes toward their children. Pictures were taken of the infants (in a standardized manner) and were rated according to their attractiveness by undergraduate students.

The results of this experiment showed that mothers of infants rated as being attractive were more likely to give their children "affectionate: care, relative to mothers of children rated as unattractive, who were more likely to give their infants "routine" care or to pay attention to other people in the room. These results were also found at the three month follow-up, but only with the mothers of male infants.

The attitudinal measures also showed differences between the mothers of attractive and unattractive children, but only in that mothers of unattractive infants were more likely to say that infants interfere in their lives. There were no differences between the two groups of mothers in regard to attitudes of rejection or disappointment.

It should be noted that the two groups of mothers displayed greater discrepancies in their behaviors compared to their attitudes, which may be due to greater reliability of the behavioral measures or to coping strategies used by the mothers (Barden et al, 1989).

Although this study showed that attractiveness did have an effect on maternal attitudes and behaviors, it does not mean that unattractive newborns are treated poorly, or are viewed negatively by their mothers. Furthermore, the fact that the sample of mothers were all first-time parents and from a low socio-economic group should raise caution when generalizing the results to mothers in general.

References
Barden, R.C., Ford, M. E., Jensen, A.G., Rogers-Salyer, M., & Salyer, K.E. (1989). Effects of craniofacial deformity in infancy on the quality of mother-infant interactions. Child Development, 60, 819-824.

Langlois, J.H., Ritter, J. M., Casey, R.J., & Sawin, D.B. (1995). Infant attractiveness predicts maternal behaviors and attitudes. Developmental Psychology, 31, 464-472.

Parke, R.D., Hymel, S., Power, T., & Tinsley, B. (1977, November). Fathers and risk: A hospital based model of intervention. In D.B. Swain (Chair), Symposium on Psychosocial Risks During Infancy. Symposium conducted at the University of Texas at Austin.

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