New psychology research confirms the power of singing to infants

Parents across the world sing to their babies every day—soothing them, amusing them, or simply connecting with them. But does this instinctive behavior have measurable long-term benefits for infants’ emotional well-being? A new study published in the journal Child Development suggests it does. In a randomized trial, researchers found that encouraging parents to sing more frequently led to sustained increases in infant mood, even after the intervention ended. The same benefits did not appear for caregivers themselves, but the study shows the powerful role music can play in early development.

The research builds on decades of work emphasizing how the early caregiving environment shapes long-term health outcomes. Warmth, responsiveness, and consistency from caregivers are essential features of a healthy attachment relationship in infancy. But families vary widely in the support and resources they have to provide this environment, and simple, accessible interventions can make a difference. This study tested one such intervention: increasing the amount of infant-directed singing in the home.

Previous studies have shown that singing can calm infants more effectively than speech, reduce distress, and even influence physiological markers of arousal. Musical activities have also been linked to better parent-child bonding and improved parental mood in some cases. However, most of this research focused on short-term responses. The current study aimed to find out whether singing has a cumulative effect—specifically, whether encouraging more singing over several weeks could lead to general improvements in infant mood outside of immediate music-related situations.

“Even before we conducted this study, there was already strong evidence that infant-directed singing has powerful short-term effects on babies,” said study author Eun Cho, a postdoctoral researcher at the Child Study Center at Yale University.

“We knew that when parents sing to their infants, it captures the baby’s attention and helps regulate mood and arousal. In some cases, singing even seems to be more effective than speaking—babies often stay calmer and more engaged when listening to music than to speech.”

“One of our previous studies showed that these calming effects don’t depend on the music being familiar. Even lullabies from different cultures and in unfamiliar languages could still effectively soothe babies. What hadn’t been clear, though, was whether these short-term benefits could build up over time. Could regular singing lead to lasting improvements in well-being for both infants and caregivers? That’s what we set out to explore in this study.”

The researchers conducted a 10-week online study with 110 families of infants, mostly under 6 months old. Participants were from several countries, though the majority lived in the United States or New Zealand. The study used an “offset” randomized design: one group received a four-week music enrichment intervention early in the study, while the control group received the same materials later on.

The intervention included karaoke-style videos of new songs, weekly newsletters with tips about incorporating singing into daily life, and infant-friendly musical books. The idea was not just to get caregivers to sing more, but also to help them feel more comfortable and engaged in doing so. Importantly, the researchers did not prescribe when or how to sing, leaving it up to parents to use music as they saw fit. The main goal was to increase singing naturally in the course of everyday caregiving.

To measure outcomes, the study used ecological momentary assessment—short surveys delivered to caregivers’ smartphones at random times during the day. These surveys asked about the infant’s mood, whether the baby had been fussy, what soothing methods were used, and the caregiver’s own mood and stress level. The high-frequency, real-time data allowed the researchers to capture fluctuations in behavior and emotional states without relying on parents’ memories.

The researchers found that the intervention successfully increased singing frequency. By the final week of the program, caregivers in the intervention group reported singing to their infants in nearly 90% of the survey windows—compared to about 65% in the control group. They also estimated singing more times per day overall, with the increase persisting even after the intervention had ended.

“From a methodological perspective, a particularly encouraging outcome was the high level of compliance with the study protocol—caregivers completed over 70% of the surveys across the 10-week period, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach for future developmental research,” Cho said. “This strong compliance supported our decision to move forward with a longer-term, longitudinal study, which is currently underway.”

Caregivers in the intervention group increasingly used singing as a way to soothe their babies when they were fussy. Although other soothing methods—like feeding or rocking—remained stable, singing rose sharply and became one of the most frequently reported strategies. Notably, caregivers were not told to use singing specifically to calm their infants.

“One interesting finding was how intuitively caregivers incorporated singing into soothing routines for their infants, even though the intervention did not explicitly instruct them to use singing for this purpose,” Cho told PsyPost. “Among a dozen soothing strategies, singing was the only one that showed a significant increase in use following the intervention.”

Most importantly, the intervention led to a general improvement in infant mood. Caregivers rated their infants’ mood more positively during the post-intervention period, even though the surveys were not linked to specific musical moments. The mood improvements were modest but consistent, and they did not appear in the control group. The effect was also replicated across two different countries, suggesting it may be broadly generalizable.

“You don’t need to be musically trained to make a positive impact through singing,” Cho explained. “Our findings suggest that when parents sing more often during daily routines—no matter what songs they sing or whether they can sing in tune or not—it can support their baby’s mood and emotional well-being. It’s a simple, low-cost practice that can strengthen parent-child connection and make daily life a little smoother.”

One concern in any caregiver-reported study is that parents might project their own feelings onto their infants. To address this, the researchers also looked at caregiver mood ratings. Interestingly, they found no changes in how parents rated their own mood across the study period. This suggests that the improvements in infant mood were not simply a byproduct of happier parents.

Additional analyses showed that infant and caregiver mood ratings, while somewhat correlated, responded differently to other questions—such as how stressed the caregiver felt or how socially connected they were. This further supports the idea that parents were reliably distinguishing between their own emotional states and those of their infants.

Still, the study has limitations. The sample skewed heavily toward White, highly educated, and economically advantaged families. Most participants already reported frequent singing before the intervention, which may have reduced the potential impact of the program. Additionally, the findings are based entirely on caregiver observations. While the use of frequent, real-time assessments helps reduce recall bias, it cannot fully rule out subtle reporting effects.

Another limitation is the narrow scope of observed benefits. The intervention appeared to improve infant mood, but not infant arousal levels, caregiver stress, or caregiver mood. It’s possible that a longer or more structured program might have stronger or more widespread effects. In fact, the researchers are now conducting a larger, eight-month study to examine whether singing, music listening, or book reading can improve outcomes for both infants and caregivers across a longer period.

“This study was exploratory in nature,” Cho noted. “While we anticipated seeing broader and stronger effects of singing, we only found benefits on babies’ mood. However, even though our intervention only lasted four weeks, we already saw measurable improvements in infant mood, which is really encouraging. It suggests that with more time and support, the effects of parental singing could be even stronger—and possibly extend beyond mood.”

“To explore that further, we’re now running a larger, longer follow-up study here at the Yale Child Study Center. It’s called Together We Grow (www.togetherwegrow.study), and we’re enrolling parents of babies under four months old across the United States. This new study looks at how different enrichment activities—like singing, music listening, and book reading—impact the well-being of both babies and caregivers over an eight-month period. There’s a lot we’re hoping to learn in this next phase, and we hope to share those findings in the next couple of years.”

The study, “Ecological Momentary Assessment Reveals Causal Effects of Music Enrichment on Infant Mood,” was authored by Eun Cho, Lidya Yurdum, Ekanem Ebinne, Courtney B. Hilton, Estelle Lai, Mila Bertolo, Pip Brown, Brooke Milosh, Haran Sened, Diana I. Tamir, and Samuel A. Mehr.