The cries of infants and children are familiar to essentially all adults, and we all have our own common sense notions of the meanings of various cries at each age level. As is often the case, in the study of various aspects ofhuman behavior we often investigate what seems self evident to the general public. For example, if an infant cries, he or she needs atttention;if the cry is different than usual, he or she is sick; and when we areupsetby othermatters, children's crying can be very annoy ing. As a pediatric clinician often faced with discussing with parents their concerns or lack of them...

Volume 1 of Theory and Research in Belwvioral Pediatrics drew attention to issues related to the assessment of the preterm infant, to organizational processes in infant development, and to the systemic nature of caregiver-infant relationships. Vol- ume 2 continued the theme of systemic organization while ex- amining various contextual and ecological factors that affect development during infancy and childhood. Volume 3 con- tinues these themes. Interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary studies, cross-cul- tural comparisons, prospective longitudinal designs, and so- phisticated multivariate...