Understanding Stranger Anxiety in Infants and Young Children

The emotional distress that infants and young children show when they are approached by a very unfamiliar person is known as stranger anxiety. It’s perfectly normal and is an adaptive developmental achievement in a child's life. The first 6 months of an infant’s life, stranger anxiety is rare. My guess is that it’s because it’s too early in their lives to cling on to the parents or even be fully aware of their surroundings. But as they get older it’s quite common by about 8 months, and reaches its high point around the child's first birthday. Just in puberty, girls seem display this anxiety just a little slightly earlier than boys. Research shows that stranger anxiety is universal cross-culturally. Among most infants, it is signaled by a host of infant behaviors. These behaviors

includes crying, gaze aversion, crawling or walking away from the stranger, hiding their faces, and self-soothing like sucking their own thumbs. When an infant starts to display these behaviors as a response to strangers, it indicates that infants are capable of distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar people. This is a very significant cognitive task. Infants are people just as with any adults. So each infant is different in their own right. Some infants will exhibit stranger anxiety a lot stronger than others. The two factors linked to be responsible for individual differences in stranger anxiety is the intensity of the infant’s temperament and attachment. Researchers found that infants who are quite fussy are more than likely to respond more negatively to the approach of a stranger than more easy-going infants. Researchers also found that infants who have been known to be securely attached to their caregiver are more sociable and less cautious of strangers than infants classified as insecurely attached.

On the other hand, Infants who are securely attached tend to have caregivers who are sensitive and responsive to their infants' emotional signals, while infants who are insecurely attached tend to have caregivers who are either inconsistently sensitive or responsive to their infants' emotional signals or ignore their infants' signals altogether. The frequency and severity of stranger anxiety are influenced by a few factors. Infants tend to show greater stranger anxiety when the caregiver is not present. When a stranger is either tall, unattractive, male, approaches quickly, or touches them. Another scenario is the infant is physically restrained like in a high chair or car seat. I know parents often wonder how the rate and severity of stranger anxiety can be minimized. Doing some research I found that babies tend to show fewer negative displays if the stranger slowly approaches them and does not tower over them. They if the stranger approaches them friendly, playing with them like

peek-a-boo. The stranger should try smiling when the infant smiles. But the most effective route is simply having the caregiver is present. To sum it up, stranger anxiety is an adaptive response that is a naturally normal and healthy behavioral reaction. The rate of stranger anxiety is influenced by several factors, including the context in which infants find themselves as well as how strangers approach them. These factors and others can be modified to modulate infant wariness toward strangers. So if a new babysitter is coming, be sure to have that person spend some time with the family prior.