The Music of Matrescence: The Missing Link in our understanding of Mother-Infant Bonding through Interactive Music. A Commentary on Vazquez-Diaz de Leon (2024)

Abstract

Vazquez-Diaz de Leon’s (2024) study explores mothers’ uses of music in everyday life, illuminating the potential of this reciprocal process in supporting the quality of mother–infant interactions and maternal bonding, while also supporting maternal identity, regulation and coping during motherhood. This commentary calls for further matricentric focused research that acknowledges the social and cultural context of ‘matrescence’ as a significant and transformation shift into motherhood that is largely underrepresented and warrants further exploration and discourse into how this period may intersect with mothers’ musical engagement in everyday life.