Agree or Agree to Disagree? Assessing the Convergence between Parents and Observers on Infant Temperament

Interparental aggression, attention skills, and early childhood behavior problems

The current study explored longitudinal associations between interparental aggression, the development of child attention skills, and early childhood behavior problems in a diverse sample of 636 families living in predominately low-income, nonmetropolitan communities. The results of latent-variable, cross-lagged longitudinal models revealed that maternal-reported interparental aggression in infancy predicted reduced observed attention skills in toddlerhood; no association was observed, however, between attention in infancy and interparental aggression during the toddler years. Further, reduced toddler attention and high interparental aggression were both associated with increased risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms and conduct problems at 3 years of age. Processes largely operated in similar ways regardless of child gender or low-income status, although a few differences were observed. Overall, the results suggest that interparental aggression undermines attention development, putting children's early behavioral adjustment at risk.

The relation of parenting, child temperament, and attachment security in early childhood to social competence at school entry

A wealth of research demonstrates the importance of early parent-child interactions on children's social functioning. However, less is known about the interrelations between child and parent characteristics and parent-child interactions in early childhood. Moreover, few studies have broadly examined the longitudinal relations between these constructs and social competence. This study is an examination of the relations between parent responsiveness, negativity, and emotional supportiveness, attachment security, and child temperament, and their impact on children's social competence from infancy to kindergarten entry. The sample was derived from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Birth Cohort and included 6850 parent-child dyads. Observational and rating scale data were used. The proposed model was nearly fully supported by path analysis, and it provides insight into the complex relations between early parenting behaviors, child characteristics, and parent-child interactions in the development of social competence.

Infant temperament and maternal parenting self-efficacy predict child weight outcomes

Relationships between infant negative reactivity and self-regulation, parenting self-efficacy, and child weight outcomes were examined. Greater observed negative reactivity predicted more child weight gain when mothers had lower parenting self-efficacy. Lower mother-reported self-regulation predicted a greater child weight status. Results highlight potential early risk/protective factors.

Heterogeneity in Maltreated and Non-maltreated Preschool Children's Inhibitory Control: The Interplay Between Parenting Quality and Child Temperament

This study examined the contribution of child temperament, parenting, and their interaction on inhibitory control development in a sample of maltreated and non-maltreated preschool children. One hundred and eighteen mother-child dyads were drawn from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Dyads participated in a laboratory session in which maternal warm autonomy support, warm guidance, and strict/hostile control were observationally coded during a joint teaching task. Independent assessments of children's inhibitory control were obtained, and observers rated children's temperament. After relevant covariates, including income, maternal education, and child age and IQ were controlled for, there were no differences between the maltreatment and non-maltreatment groups in either children's inhibitory control or mothers' behaviours in the laboratory session. Even after much of the variance in children's inhibitory control was accounted for from the covariates, children's temperamental negativity moderated the effects of warm autonomy support on inhibitory control in both maltreatment and non-maltreatment groups. Temperamentally negative children whose mothers displayed more warm autonomy support showed greater inhibitory control, at levels on par with low-negative children. Findings suggest that heterogeneity in children's self-regulation may be due in part to individual differences in sensitivity to caregiver support for children's independence, even among those exposed to maltreatment.

CHILDHOOD TEMPERAMENT-BASED ANTICIPATORY GUIDANCE IN AN HMO SETTING: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This study investigates whether individualized, anticipatory temperament guidance could benefit the parent-child relationship and improve children's mental health over time. Parents of preschoolers in a health management organization completed a temperament questionnaire, received written parenting information tailored to their child's temperament, and were asked to complete a program evaluation questionnaire. The numbers of subsequent visits to the pediatric and psychiatry departments with anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other externalizing behavior diagnoses were compared over 15 years to a control sample that received only standard care. Parents positively reviewed the program and boys who received the intervention had fewer visits with psychiatric diagnoses. Analyses revealed an interaction effect, where boys with harder-to-manage temperaments saw a greater reduction in visits from the intervention. By sensitizing parents to their child's temperament and helping parents understand and manage temperament-related behaviors, anticipatory guidance can encourage a positive parent-child relationship and reduce future occurrences of psychiatric diagnoses.

Gender differences in young children's temperament traits: comparisons across observational and parent-report methods

Evidence supporting the continuity between child temperament and adult personality traits is accumulating. One important indicator of continuity is the presence of reliable gender differences in traits across the lifespan. A substantial literature demonstrates gender differences on certain adult personality traits and recent meta-analytic work on child samples suggests similar gender differences for some broad and narrow domains of temperament. However, most existing studies of children rely only on parent-report measures. The present study investigated gender differences in temperament traits assessed by laboratory observation, maternal-report, and paternal-report measures. Across three independent samples, behavioral observations, maternal-report, and paternal-report measures of temperament were collected on 463 boys and 402 girls. Across all three methods, girls demonstrated higher positive affect and fear and lower activity level than boys. For laboratory measures, girls demonstrated higher levels of sociability and lower levels of overall negative emotionality (NE), sadness, anger and impulsivity than boys. However, girls demonstrated higher levels of overall NE and sadness than boys when measured by maternal reports. Finally, girls demonstrated lower levels of sociability based on paternal reports. Results are discussed in relation to past meta-analytic work and developmental implications of the findings.

Negative reactivity in toddlers born prematurely: indirect and moderated pathways considering self-regulation, neonatal distress and parenting stress

High negative reactivity in early childhood interferes with later academic and behavioral adjustment. Thus, investigating the origins of high negative affectivity in early childhood is of high relevance for understanding emotional morbidity after preterm birth. The present work explored (1) direct prematurity-related consequences for negative reactivity, (2) self-regulatory deficits as a mechanism indirectly relating prematurity to negative affectivity and (3) the implications of the interplay between procedural distress in the neonatal period and parenting stress for preterm children's negative reactivity. The sample was comprised of 146 preterm children (very vs. moderately to late preterm) and 86 healthy full-term children, both free of major neurological impairment. Assessment involved negative affect and parenting stress (parent-report; 12, 24 months corrected age, CA), effortful control (behavioral battery, parent report; 24 months CA) and the number of potentially distressing neonatal intensive care procedures as well as severity of illness during the neonatal period (retrospective chart review). There was no direct link from prematurity to a disposition for high negative reactivity in early childhood nor was prematurity indirectly associated with higher negative reactivity through lower levels of effortful control. The relation between neonatal pain and distress and negative affectivity depended on the level of parenting stress with low parenting stress at the end of the first year of children's life buffering the negative influence of neonatal distress. The present findings underscore the importance of complex interactions among environmental factors in processes of emotional plasticity after preterm birth thereby providing critical suggestions for follow-up care.

Temperament and childhood obesity risk: a review of the literature

OBJECTIVE

Temperament, or individual differences in behavioral styles, could explain why many individuals are susceptible to childhood obesity in the current environment while others are not. The objective of this article is to review the growing body of literature linking weight outcomes with 2 aspects of temperament, negativity and self-regulation.

METHOD

Studies conducted through 2011 and assessing at least 1 weight outcome and 1 aspect of early negativity or self-regulation in normally developing infants and young children were included.

RESULTS

Most studies suggest that greater levels of negative reactivity in early life may increase the risk of obesity, and greater self-regulation may be protective. While temperaments of individuals tend to be relatively stable over time, there is evidence that links between early temperament and weight outcomes are malleable.

CONCLUSIONS

Relationships between temperament and weight outcomes are becoming well established. More research is needed to confirm the longitudinal nature of these relationships and to shed light on the mediators and moderators of these relationships and their implications for obesity interventions.

Interparental aggression and infant patterns of adrenocortical and behavioral stress responses

Drawing on emotional security theory, this study examined linkages between interparental aggression, infant self-regulatory behaviors, and patterns of physiological and behavioral stress responses in a diverse sample of 735 infants residing in predominately low-income, non-metropolitan communities. Latent profile analysis revealed four classes of adrenocortical and behavioral stress-response patterns at 7 months of age, using assessments of behavioral and cortisol reactivity to an emotion eliciting challenge, as well as global ratings of the child's negative affect and basal cortisol levels. The addition of covariates within the latent profile model suggested that children with more violence in the home and children who used less caregiver-oriented regulation strategies were more likely to exhibit a pattern of high cortisol reactivity with moderate signs of distress rather than the average stress response, suggesting possible patterns of adaptation in violent households.

Temperamental surgency and emotion regulation as predictors of childhood social competence

The primary aims of the current study were to longitudinally examine the direct relationship between children's temperamental surgency and social behaviors as well as the moderating role of children's emotion regulation. A total of 90 4.5-year-old children participated in a laboratory visit where children's temperamental surgency was rated by experimenters and children's emotion regulation abilities were assessed. The summer before entry into first grade, children's social behaviors with unfamiliar peers were observed in the laboratory and mothers completed a questionnaire about children's social behaviors. Supporting our hypotheses, results revealed that children high in temperamental surgency developed more negative peer behaviors, whereas children low in temperamental surgency were more likely to develop behavioral wariness with peers. Emotion regulatory behaviors were found to moderate the relation between temperamental surgency and aggression, where high-surgent children who showed high levels of social support seeking were less likely to be rated by their mothers as high in aggression. Furthermore, results revealed that low-surgent children who showed high levels of distraction/self-soothing were more likely to show behavioral wariness around unfamiliar peers, whereas high-surgent children who used more distraction/self-soothing behaviors were rated by their mothers as lower in social competence.

Cognitive development in very vs. moderately to late preterm and full-term children: can effortful control account for group differences in toddlerhood?

BACKGROUND

Preterm birth is thought to have an adverse impact on cognitive development and self-regulation.

AIM

Examining the effect of very vs. moderately to late premature birth on cognitive development and effortful control, as well as evaluating whether effortful control explains the link between preterm birth and poorer cognitive development.

SUBJECTS

Fifty-eight very preterm children (<32 weeks gestation or <1500 g birth weight), 88 moderately to late preterm children (≥32 weeks gestation and ≥1500 birth weight) and 86 full-term children (≥38 weeks gestation and ≥2500 g birth weight) were examined at the corrected age of 24 months.

OUTCOME MEASURES

Observational and parent-report measures of effortful control as well as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID II, Mental Scale) as a measurement of cognitive development were analyzed.

RESULTS

Very preterm and moderately to late preterm children showed significantly lower cognitive performance compared to full-term children. Lower effortful control scores (on observational measures, but not on parent-reports) were merely found for very preterm children compared to full-term children. Observational measures of effortful control partially mediated the effects of very preterm birth on cognitive performance, but did not explain the effects of moderately to late preterm birth on cognitive performance.

CONCLUSION

Preterm birth in general is related to poorer cognitive performance in toddlerhood. In addition, effortful control mediates the effects of very preterm birth on cognitive development. Findings suggest that different mechanisms link moderately to late premature birth to poor cognitive development.

The structure of temperament in preschoolers: a two-stage factor analytic approach

The structure of temperament traits in young children has been the subject of extensive debate, with separate models proposing different trait dimensions. This research has relied almost exclusively on parent-report measures. The present study used an alternative approach, a laboratory observational measure, to explore the structure of temperament in preschoolers. A 2-stage factor analytic approach, exploratory factor analyses (n = 274) followed by confirmatory factor analyses (n = 276), was used. We retrieved an adequately fitting model that consisted of 5 dimensions: Sociability, Positive Affect/Interest, Dysphoria, Fear/Inhibition, and Constraint versus Impulsivity. This solution overlaps with, but is also distinct from, the major models derived from parent-report measures.

Causes and correlates of frequent night awakenings in early childhood

Night awakenings are a normative part of early development. In the first year, night awakenings are associated with birth order, feeding route, sleep aid use, sleep location, infant temperament and development, infant-parent attachment, family socioeconomics, and cultural norms. In the second year, additional factors build on these foundational features, including parenting practices and object attachment. As children grow, contextual factors like preschool entry or changes in family member status may influence the continuation or exacerbation of awakenings. Future research should consider the multitude of factors that influence not only awakenings but also parental perceptions, family dynamics, and cultural norms.

Preschool children's cardiac reactivity moderates relations between exposure to family violence and emotional adjustment

This study examined relations between cardiac reactivity, family violence exposure (i.e., child maltreatment [CM] and inter-partner violence [IPV]), and preschool children's emotional adjustment. A sample of 92 mother-preschooler dyads was drawn from predominantly low-income, rural communities. Dyads participated in a laboratory session in which children's Electrocardiograph (ECG) monitoring occurred during a resting baseline, joint-challenge, and individual emotional and cognitive tasks. Mothers consented to review of Children & Youth Services (CYS) records for CM and completed an IPV measure. Mothers rated children's emotional adjustment, and observers rated children on their frustration and positive affect. Children's vagal suppression was shown to moderate relations between family violence exposure and emotional adjustment. Findings indicated that children greater in vagal suppression showed better emotional adjustment when from families low in violence. However, regardless of children's level of vagal suppression, all children showed poorer emotional adjustment when from families high in violence.

Temperament and emotion regulation: the role of autonomic nervous system reactivity

The aim of the present study was to examine the moderating role of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system functioning on the relationship between child temperament and emotion regulation. Sixty-two 4.5-year olds (31 females) were rated by their parents on temperamental surgency. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and pre-ejection period (PEP) were measured at baseline and in reaction to an interaction with an unfamiliar person and a cognitive test. The preschoolers' ability to self-regulate emotion was assessed in response to a disappointment. Results revealed little or no PEP reactivity to the unfamiliar person to be related to poorer emotion regulation for children high in surgency, indicating that the lack of sympathetic activation may be a risk factor for behavioral maladjustment. Reciprocal sympathetic activation, or increases in sympathetic activity accompanied by decreases in parasympathetic activity, was associated with better regulation of emotion for all levels of temperamental surgency supporting previous work that reciprocal activation is an adaptive form of autonomic control.

Exploring an integrative model of infant behavior: what is the relationship among temperament, sensory processing, and neurobehavioral measures?

Traditionally, developmental psychology, occupational/physical therapy, and behavioral pediatrics view similar infant behaviors from temperament, sensory processing, or neurobehavioral theoretical perspectives. This study examined the relations between similar and unique summary scores of three infant assessments (Early Infancy Temperament Questionnaire - EITQ, the Infant Sensory Profile - ISP, and the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale - NNNS) in a healthy sample of 100, one-month-old infants. A Principal Components Analysis of selected subscale scores derived from the three assessments suggested a three-factor model. Temperament and sensory summary scores had the strongest relations on two factors: Sensory-Affective Reactivity and Engagement. A third factor had strong relations between state regulation and motor competence. This new integrative model also validates an existing model and expands explanation of infant behavior across disciplines and methods which have significant implications for assessment, intervention, and management practices.

Temperament and Maternal Emotion Socialization Beliefs as Predictors of Early Childhood Social Behavior in the Laboratory and Classroom

OBJECTIVE

We examined the roles of children's approach behavior and maternal emotion socialization practices in the development of social behavior in unfamiliar and familiar contexts from preschool to early childhood years.

DESIGN

At 4.5 years of age, children were observed, and an assessment of approach behavior was obtained; at this time, mothers reported about their emotion socialization beliefs. Two years later, children returned to the laboratory to participate in a peer play paradigm. When children were 7 years of age, teachers completed a questionnaire about children's social behaviors in the classroom.

RESULTS

Mothers' emotion socialization beliefs contribute to the developmental outcomes of approach behavior. For instance, observations of approach behaviors predicted a greater proportion of group play in the unfamiliar peer group when mothers reported highly supportive emotion socialization beliefs.

CONCLUSION

Mothers' emotion socialization beliefs appear to play an important role in modifying the developmental course of approach behavior during early childhood.

Late-preterm birth, maternal symptomatology, and infant negativity

The present study examined infant negativity and maternal symptomatology by term status in a predominately low-income, rural sample of 132 infants (66 late-preterm) and their mothers. Late-preterm and term infants were group-matched by race, income, and maternal age. Maternal depression and anxiety symptoms were measured with the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18) when infants were 2 and 6 months of age. Also at 6 months, infant negativity was assessed by global observer ratings, maternal ratings, and microanalytic behavioral coding of fear and frustration. Results indicate that after controlling for infant age, late-preterm status predicted higher ratings of infant negativity by mothers, but not by global observers or microanalytic coding, despite a positive association in negativity across the three measures. Further, mothers of late-preterm infants reported more elevated and chronic co-morbid symptoms of depression and anxiety, which in turn, was related to concurrent maternal ratings of their infant's negativity. Mothers' response to late-preterm birth and partiality in the assessment of their infant's temperament is discussed.

Maternal sleep and depressive symptoms: links with infant Negative Affectivity

This study assessed whether elevated severities of maternal depression and disturbed maternal sleep would be associated with maternal perceptions of higher Negative Affectivity of her infant. Sixty-nine mothers participated in this study. The study was part of a larger randomized controlled study testing the efficacy of acupuncture as a treatment for depression during pregnancy. The present study focused on data collected at 6 months postpartum in a naturalistic follow-up design, using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), maternal sleep diaries (completed daily for 1 week), and the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R). Regression analyses revealed that (a) maternal depression severity was a significant predictor of the IBQ-R Distress and Falling Reactivity scales and (b) poor maternal sleep was a significant predictor of the IBQ-R Sadness scale. Our findings support previous findings of significant links between maternal emotional distress and perceived Negative Affectivity of her infant's temperament and provide a novel insight linking maternal poor sleep with perceived sadness of the infant.

Predicting preschool effortful control from toddler temperament and parenting behavior

This longitudinal study assessed whether maternal behavior and emotional tone moderated the relationship between toddler temperament and preschooler's effortful control. Maternal behavior and emotional tone were observed during a parent-child competing demands task when children were 2 years of age. Child temperament was also assessed at 2 years of age, and three temperament groups were formed: inhibited, exuberant, and low reactive. At 4.5 years of age, children's effortful control was measured from parent-report and observational measures. Results indicated that parental behavior and emotional tone appear to be especially influential on exuberant children's effortful control development. Exuberant children whose mothers used commands and prohibitive statements with a positive emotional tone were more likely to be rated higher on parent-reported effortful control 2.5 years later. When mothers conveyed redirections and reasoning-explanations in a neutral tone, their exuberant children showed poorer effortful control at 4.5 years.

Temperament and the Development of Conscience: The Moderating Role of Effortful Control

In this longitudinal study we examined whether two components of effortful control, behavioral control and executive function, moderated the relation between temperament and conscience development. Temperament was assessed when participants were 2 years of age, and three temperament groups were formed; inhibited, exuberant, and low reactive. At 4.5 years of age children's behavioral control and executive function were assessed. Moral behavior, emotionality during an empathy film, and false-belief understanding were measured at 5.5 years of age as components of conscience. Results indicate that inhibited children may benefit most from higher levels of effortful control. Inhibited children with higher levels of behavioral control performed better on false-belief understanding tasks whereas inhibited children who scored higher on executive function tests reported less emotional response to the evocative film. Finally, as a group, inhibited children exhibited more moral behavior than exuberant and low reactive children.