Continuity of temperament from infancy to middle childhood

Prenatal Gut Microbiota Predicts Temperament in Offspring at 1-2 Years

The purpose of this study was to explore whether prenatal gut microbiota (GM) and its functions predict the development of offspring temperament. A total of 53 mothers with a 1-year-old child and 41 mothers with a 2-year-old child were included in this study using a mother-infant cohort from central China. Maternal fecal samples collected during the third trimester were analyzed using 16S rRNA V3-V4 gene sequences. Temperament of the child was measured by self-reported data according to the primary caregiver. The effects of GM in mothers on offspring's temperament were evaluated using multiple linear regression models. The results demonstrated that the alpha diversity index Simpson of prenatal GM was positively associated with the activity level of offspring at 1 year (adj. P = .036). Bifidobacterium was positively associated with high-intensity pleasure characteristics of offspring at 1 year (adj. P = .031). Comparatively, the presence of Bifidobacterium found in the prenatal microbiome was associated with low-intensity pleasure characteristics in offspring at 2 years (adj. P = .031). There were many significant associations noted among the functional pathways of prenatal GM and temperament of offspring at 2 years. Our findings support the maternal-fetal GM axis in the setting of fetal-placental development with subsequent postnatal neurocognitive developmental outcomes, and suggest that early childhood temperament is in part associated with specific GM in the prenatal setting.

The Emotionally Sensitive Child-Adverse Parenting Experiences-Allostatic (Over)Load (ESCAPE-AL) Model for the Development of Secondary Psychopathic Traits

Understanding and treatment of antisocial behavior have improved through efforts to subtype individuals based on similar risk factors and outcomes. In particular, the presence of psychopathic traits is associated with distinct etiological factors and antisocial behavior that begins early in life, is aggressive, persistent, and less likely to normalize with traditional treatments, relative to individuals low on psychopathy or its childhood precursor, callous-unemotional (CU) traits. However, important distinctions can be made within individuals with CU/psychopathic traits according to the presence of elevated anxiety symptoms and/or adverse childhood experiences, known as secondary psychopathy/CU traits. This paper provides a broad and brief overview of theory and empirical literature supporting the existence of secondary psychopathy/CU variants as a distinct subtype of childhood antisocial behavior. It outlines the Emotionally Sensitive Child-Adverse Parenting Experiences-Allostatic (Over)Load (ESCAPE-AL) model for the developmental psychopathology of secondary psychopathic/CU traits and discusses research and theory supporting this perspective. Future research directions for testing this conceptual model and its implications for assessing and treating high-risk individuals with secondary CU/psychopathic traits are discussed.

Heterotypic and homotypic continuity in psychopathology: a narrative review

Psychopathology is a process: it unfolds over time and involves several different factors. To extend our knowledge of such process, it is vital to understand the trajectories that lead to developing and maintaining a specific disorder. The construct of continuity appears very useful to this aim. It refers to the consistency, similarity, and predictability of behaviors or internal states across different developmental phases. This paper aims to present a narrative review of the literature on homotypic and heterotypic continuity of psychopathology across the lifespan. A detailed search of the published literature was conducted using the PsycINFO Record and Medline (PubMed) databases. Articles were included in the review based on the following criteria: (1) publication dates ranging from January 1970 to October 2022; and (2) articles being written in the English language. To ensure a thorough investigation, multiple combinations of keywords such as "continuity," "psychopathology," "infancy," "childhood," "adolescence," "adulthood," "homotypic," and "heterotypic" were used. Articles were excluded if exclusively focused on epidemiologic data and if not specifically addressing the topic of psychopathology continuity. The literature yielded a total of 36 longitudinal studies and an additional 190 articles, spanning the research published between 1970 and 2022. Studies on continuity focus on the etiology of different forms of mental disorders and may represent a fundamental resource from both a theoretical and clinical perspective. Enhancing our understanding of the different trajectories beneath psychopathology may allow clinicians to implement more effective strategies, focusing both on prevention and intervention. Since literature highlights the importance of early detection of clinical signs of psychopathology, future research should focus more on infancy and pre-scholar age.

A systematic review on the impact of gastrointestinal microbiota composition and function on cognition in healthy infants and children

Evidence from animal models or children with neurodevelopmental disorders has implicated the gut microbiome (GM) in neurocognitive development. However, even subclinical impairement of cognition can have negative consequences, as cognition serves as the foundation for skills necessary to succeed in school, vocation and socially. The present study aims to identify gut microbiome characteristics or changes in gut microbiome characteristics that consistently associate with cognitive outcomes in healthy, neurotypical infants and children. Of the 1,520 articles identified in the search, 23 were included in qualitative synthesis after applying exclusion criteria. Most studies were cross-sectional and focused on behavior or motor and language skills. Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, Clostridia, Prevotella, and Roseburia were related to these aspects of cognition across several studies. While these results support the role of GM in cognitive development, higher quality studies focused on more complex cognition are needed to understand the extent to which the GM contributes to cognitive development.

Continuity of temperament subgroup classifications from infancy to toddlerhood in the context of early autism traits

Our previous cross-sectional investigation (Chetcuti et al., 2020) showed that infants with autism traits could be divided into distinct subgroups based on temperament. This longitudinal study builds on this existing work by exploring the continuity of temperament subgroup classifications and their associations with behavioral/clinical phenotypic features from infancy to toddlerhood. 103 infants (68% male) showing early signs of autism were referred to the study by community healthcare professionals and seen for assessments when aged around 12-months (Time 1), 18-months (Time 2), and 24-months (Time 3). Latent profile analysis revealed inhibited/low positive, active/negative reactive, and sociable/well-regulated subgroups at each timepoint, and a unique reactive/regulated subgroup at Time 3. Cross-tabulations indicated a significant likelihood of children having a recurrent subgroup classification from one timepoint to the next, and no apparent patterns to the movement of children who did change from one subgroup to another over time. Temperament subgroups were associated with concurrent child social-emotional functioning and autism traits, but unrelated to child age, sex, or developmental level. These findings suggest that temperament subgroup classifications might represent a reliable and very early indicator of autism characteristics and social-emotional functioning among infants/toddlers with autism traits.

Associations between observed and reported infant negative affectivity, fear and self-regulation, and early communicative development-Evidence from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study

Self-regulation and language are intertwined abilities, but the nature of their relations in early childhood when both skills are still emerging is insufficiently understood. Our knowledge of the relations between early negative affectivity and preverbal and verbal communicative development is still limited. Further, observed and reported temperament capture how aspects of temperament operate in different settings but are rarely used in parallel in studies examining early language. During the period of rapid development, longitudinal studies are needed to identify early risk factors for delayed communicative development. We studied relations between aspects of emerging self-regulation and negative affectivity using both observations at 8 months and mother-reports at 6 and 12 months, and communicative development measured by gesturing and vocabulary at 14 and vocabulary at 30 months in 183 children. Mother-reported self-regulation was related to a higher use of communicative gestures and observed self-regulation by gaze aversion to poorer receptive and expressive vocabulary at 14 months, but neither was significantly associated with vocabulary at 30 months. We found little evidence for associations between negative affectivity and fear in infancy and communicative development. Our findings highlight different aspects of self-regulation as both potential risk and protective factors for communicative development. Mixed results indicate a need for a more detailed examination of different strategies of self-regulation in different conditions and developmental stages to yield a deeper understanding of the relations between self-regulation in infancy and communicative development.

Effects of Maternal and Child Lifetime Traumatic Stress Exposures, Infant Temperament, and Caregiving Quality on Preschoolers' Executive Functioning

We examined effects of maternal and child lifetime traumatic stress exposures, infant temperament, and caregiving quality on parent ratings of preschoolers' executive functioning (EF). Maternal lifetime trauma was associated with preschoolers' EF problems; this association was mediated by greater child trauma exposure. Infant temperament was associated with EF abilities, particularly among females. Among males, infant extraversion/surgency mediated the association of maternal lifetime trauma with poorer child EF. Caregiving quality was negatively associated with maternal and child trauma exposures but did not predict child EF. Findings have implications for interventions to identify children at risk for poor EF and optimize outcomes.

Temperament and psychopathology: The "community" to which you belong matters

We utilized a community detection approach to longitudinally (a) identify distinct groups of children with common temperament profiles in infancy and at 2 and 3 years of age and (b) determine whether co-occurrence of certain temperament traits may be early predictors of internalizing problems at 5 years of age. Seven hundred and seventy-four infants (360 girls; 88.6% White, 9.8% Hispanic, and 1.6% other races) were recruited from the Boston area. Data collection spanned from 2012 to 2021. The analysis yielded three distinct groups of children with different temperament traits and was associated with significant variation in levels of internalizing symptoms and anxiety diagnosis rate. Our findings suggest that stable temperament "communities" can be detected in early childhood and may predict risk for psychopathology later in life.

Maternal depressive symptoms and early childhood temperament before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unexpected and major global event, with the potential to have many and varied impacts on child development. However, the implications of the pandemic for maternal depressive symptoms, early childhood temperament dimensions, and their associations, remain largely unknown. To investigate this, questionnaires were completed by mothers (N = 175) before and during the pandemic when their child was 10- and 16-months old (Study 1), and by an extended group of mothers with young children (6-48 months; 66 additional mothers) during the first and second national lockdowns in the United Kingdom in 2020 (Study 2). Results indicated that while maternal pandemic-related stress decreased over the first 6 months of the pandemic, there was an increase in mothers who reported feeling some level of pandemic-specific depression. Despite this, we did not observe an increase in the severity of global maternal depressive symptoms, or any negative impact of the pandemic on the development of temperament in infancy and early childhood.

Stability and structure of infant and toddler temperament in two longitudinal studies in Germany

The present study investigated the factor structure and longitudinal stability of infant and toddler temperament measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) and the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) in two German samples. Since the few studies using the German IBQ-R failed to replicate the commonly assumed three factors of infant temperament, another exploration of its factor structure was necessary. Whereas previous stability measurements are usually based on groups with relatively large age ranges, we investigated stability between concrete ages. In Study 1, the IBQ-R was applied in 9- and 12-month-old infants. In Study 2, both questionnaires were applied in 12-, 18-, and 24-month-olds. Factor analyses of the IBQ-R in both studies revealed a two-factor solution comprising Surgency/ Extraversion and Negative Affectivity, replicating earlier findings with German infants. The Orienting/ Regulation factor was not replicated for the IBQ-R, whereas analysis of the ECBQ revealed a three-factor solution for toddlers. The results showed stability of temperament ratings within infancy (Study 1) and toddlerhood (Study 2) as well as between the developmental periods within the second year of life (Study 2). Taken together, the present findings indicate that temperament stability emerges early in life and can be reliably measured using the IBQ-R and ECBQ, whereas the factor structure of temperament in infancy requires further validation.

Multimodal assessments of preterm temperament across the first year of life: Continuity, stability, and moderation by country of origin and infant age

There is limited research regarding the continuity, stability, and role of country of origin in preterm infant temperament across the first year of life. This prospective longitudinal study examined patterns of mean-level continuity and individual-differences stability of select scales of temperament at 6 and 12 months in preterm infants from three countries, Chile (n = 47), United Kingdom (n = 44), and United States (n = 50). Temperament was assessed with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire and observed using the Bayley Behavior Rating Scale. Continuity and stability across infant age, country effects, and interactions of country and age on preterm infant temperament were examined. Chilean mothers rated infants higher in soothability, duration of orienting, and orientation/engagement compared with mothers from the United Kingdom and/or United States. Continuity of temperament from 6 to 12 months varied by country: Chilean mothers reported increasing smiling and laughter and activity level from 6 to 12 months, and mothers from the United Kingdom reported decreasing smiling and laughter and increasing fear from 6 to 12 months. Infant temperament was stable in all three countries. Correlations evidenced low concordance between maternal reports and examiner observations of infant temperament at 12 months. However, among Chilean infants, higher maternal reported activity level was associated with higher examiner observed orientation/engagement score.

Prenatal substance exposure and maternal hostility from pregnancy to toddlerhood: Associations with temperament profiles at 16 months of age

We investigated whether infant temperament was predicted by level of and change in maternal hostility, a putative transdiagnostic vulnerability for psychopathology, substance use, and insensitive parenting. A sample of women (N = 247) who were primarily young, low-income, and had varying levels of substance use prenatally (69 nonsmokers, 81 tobacco-only smokers, and 97 tobacco and marijuana smokers) reported their hostility in the third trimester of pregnancy and at 2, 9, and 16 months postpartum, and their toddler's temperament and behavior problems at 16 months. Maternal hostility decreased from late pregnancy to 16 months postpartum. Relative to pregnant women who did not use substances, women who used both marijuana and tobacco prenatally reported higher levels of hostility while pregnant and exhibited less change in hostility over time. Toddlers who were exposed to higher levels of prenatal maternal hostility were more likely to be classified in temperament profiles that resemble either irritability or inhibition, identified via latent profile analysis. These two profiles were each associated with more behavior problems concurrently, though differed in their association with competence. Our results underscore the utility of transdiagnostic vulnerabilities in understanding the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology risk and are discussed in regards to the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework.

The centrality of temperament to the research domain criteria (RDoC): The earliest building blocks of psychopathology

The research domain criteria (RDoC) is an innovative approach designed to explore dimensions of human behavior. The aim of this approach is to move beyond the limits of psychiatric categories in the hope of aligning the identification of psychological health and dysfunction with clinical neuroscience. Despite its contributions to adult psychopathology research, RDoC undervalues ontogenetic development, which circumscribes our understanding of the etiologies, trajectories, and maintaining mechanisms of psychopathology risk. In this paper, we argue that integrating temperament research into the RDoC framework will advance our understanding of the mechanistic origins of psychopathology beginning in infancy. In illustrating this approach, we propose the incorporation of core principles of temperament theories into a new "life span considerations" subsection as one option for infusing development into the RDoC matrix. In doing so, researchers and clinicians may ultimately have the tools necessary to support emotional development and reduce a young child's likelihood of psychological dysfunction beginning in the first years of life.

Development and validation of the Early Executive Functions Questionnaire: A carer-administered measure of Executive Functions suitable for 9- to 30-month-olds

Executive functions (EFs) enable us to control our attention and behavior in order to set and work toward goals. Strong EF skills are linked to better academic performance, and greater health, wealth, and happiness in later life. Research into EF development has been hampered by a lack of scalable measures suitable for infancy through to toddlerhood. The 31-item Early Executive Functions Questionnaire (EEFQ) complements temperament measures by targeting cognitive and regulatory capabilities. Exploratory Factor Analysis (n = 486 8- to 30-month-olds) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 317 9- to 30-month-olds) indicate Inhibitory Control, Flexibility, and Working Memory items load onto a common "Cognitive Executive Function (CEF)" factor, while Regulation items do not. The CEF factor shows strong factorial measurement invariance for sex, and partial strong factorial measurement invariance for age. CEF and Regulation scores show limited floor and ceiling effects, good internal consistency, short-term stability, and convergent validity with carer-report measures of attentional control. The EEFQ is sensitive to developmental change. Results indicate that the widely overlooked period between late infancy and early toddlerhood may be a sensitive period for EF development. The low-resource demands of the EEFQ afford the possibility to study emergent EFs at scale; opening up new opportunities in basic developmental and intervention research.

Development of the infant gut microbiome predicts temperament across the first year of life

Perturbations to the gut microbiome are implicated in altered neurodevelopmental trajectories that may shape life span risk for emotion dysregulation and affective disorders. However, the sensitive periods during which the microbiome may influence neurodevelopment remain understudied. We investigated relationships between gut microbiome composition across infancy and temperament at 12 months of age. In 67 infants, we examined if gut microbiome composition assessed at 1-3 weeks, 2, 6, and 12 months of age was associated with temperament at age 12 months. Stool samples were sequenced using the 16S Illumina MiSeq platform. Temperament was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R). Beta diversity at age 1-3 weeks was associated with surgency/extraversion at age 12 months. Bifidobacterium and Lachnospiraceae abundance at 1-3 weeks of age was positively associated with surgency/extraversion at age 12 months. Klebsiella abundance at 1-3 weeks was negatively associated with surgency/extraversion at 12 months. Concurrent composition was associated with negative affectivity at 12 months, including a positive association with Ruminococcus-1 and a negative association with Lactobacillus. Our findings support a relationship between gut microbiome composition and infant temperament. While exploratory due to the small sample size, these results point to early and late infancy as sensitive periods during which the gut microbiome may exert effects on neurodevelopment.

Associations of temperament types and gender of early adolescents and teachers with adolescents' school well-being

This study examined the role of temperament type and gender of adolescents and teachers in adolescents' well-being in school. The sample consisted of 677 Finnish students and 56 classroom teachers. Parents rated adolescent temperament and teachers rated their own temperament in autumn of Grade 6. Self-reports of school well-being among adolescents were obtained in autumn and the fall of Grade 6. The results showed that being a girl and having resilient temperament type predicted higher school well-being. In turn, boys with undercontrolled temperament, who were otherwise at risk for decreased school well-being, particularly benefited from having a female teacher with resilient temperament. Overall, the results suggest that both adolescent temperament type and gender play important roles in adolescents' well-being in school.

A person-centered approach to understanding child temperament at ages 3 and 6

Person-centered analyses, such as latent profile analysis, provide an approach to assessing individual differences in child temperament that aligns with typological theory and is well positioned for translation to applied settings. In a community sample, latent profile analysis was conducted using seven temperament traits assessed through laboratory observation when children were three- and six-years-old. At age 3, a four-class model fit best and subgroups were labeled “typical,” “sluggish,” “surgent,” and “dysregulated,” based on the pattern of class-specific means. A five-class model fit best at age 6 and subgroups were labeled “typical,” “sluggish,” “outgoing,” “active-impulsive” and “negative affect.” Associations between class membership and mother-reported temperament traits, concurrently assessed, were mostly consistent with the class identities. Comparison of subgroup membership across waves generally demonstrated patterns of continuity across groups characterized by similar trait patterns. This paper provides an illustrative guide for temperament researchers in the implementation of latent profile analysis, addressing important methodical considerations. Increased utilization of person-centered approaches like latent profile analysis could lead to important advances in the study of child temperament, such as improved understanding of the continuity of temperamental styles and more targeted risk assessment.

Thin slice derived personality types predict longitudinal symptom trajectories

Resilient, undercontrolled, and overcontrolled personality types have been identified across the life span and are associated with psychiatric symptoms and functioning. However, it is unknown whether these types are identifiable in preschool-aged children using observational indices or whether they predict longitudinal outcomes. The current study used observationally coded five-factor model (FFM) traits in a sample of preschoolers to identify whether personality traits cluster into types, whether types predict psychiatric symptoms and impairment across development, and whether types better predict outcomes than trait dimensions. Using a validated "thin slice" approach, preschool personality was observationally coded in a clinically enriched sample oversampled for depression (N = 299). Latent class analysis tested how FFM dimensions organized into types, identifying resilient, undercontrolled, and overcontrolled preschoolers. Types demonstrated baseline diagnostic differences and multilevel models indicated above baseline diagnoses, undercontrolled children exhibited elevated externalizing symptoms and worse functioning across development, whereas overcontrolled and resilient children did not differ. Personality types and dimensions both provided similar predictive utility. Resilient, undercontrolled, and overcontrolled personality types are identifiable using FFM observational coding in clinically heterogeneous preschoolers and undercontrolled children demonstrated the most severe trajectories. Findings highlight that personality types are detectable at early ages and have unique predictive power for psychiatric outcomes across development compared with dimensions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Transactional development of parent personality and child temperament

Stability and change in parental extraversion and neuroticism were studied in transaction with their views of their child's temperament from the age of six months to the age of five‐and‐a‐half years in 109 mother–father–child triads (parent–daughter: n = 61, parent–son: n = 48). While parental traits showed high stability, infants' higher positive affectivity predicted an increase in parental extraversion over 5 years, and infant's higher activity predicted a decrease in parental neuroticism. Parent‐rated temperament showed expected heterotypic continuity. Initially higher parental extraversion predicted an increase in the child's effortful control, and higher parental neuroticism predicted an increase in the child's negative affectivity. The results indicate that parental personality and child temperament develop in transaction promoting change in each other. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Ecological contributions to maternal-infant functioning: Differences between rural and urban family contexts

AIMS

This study considered urban-rural differences in maternal-infant interactions (sensitivity/responsiveness and synchrony/reciprocity), infant temperament, and parenting stress, for samples similar in socioeconomic and racial composition. Higher sensitivity/responsiveness and synchrony/reciprocity were hypothesized for urban dyads, with more challenging temperament profiles predicted for rural infants. Rural mothers were expected to report more parenting-role stress.

METHODS

Urban (n = 68; San Francisco Bay) and rural (n = 120; inland Pacific Northwest) mothers of infants provided ratings of temperament and parenting stress. Parental sensitivity/responsiveness and synchrony/reciprocity were coded from mother-infant play observations. Groups were compared via analyses of covariance.

RESULTS

Urban mothers demonstrated significantly more sensitivity/responsiveness and synchrony/reciprocity compared to their rural counterparts. Rural mothers rated their infants significantly higher in negative affectivity and distress in response to limitations.

CONCLUSION

Although socioeconomic status is traditionally implicated in rural and urban population differences, our results suggest other factors (e.g., isolation, access to resources) warrant further exploration. Rural ecology appears to present risk that should be examined more closely in maternal-infant interactions and child social-emotional development. The variability of risk within urban and rural classifications (e.g., suburban, inner-city) also requires consideration.

Gut microbiota composition is associated with temperament traits in infants

BACKGROUND

One of the key behavioral phenotypes in infancy are different temperament traits, and certain early life temperament traits have been shown to precede later mental health problems. Differences in the gut microbiota composition (GMC) have been suggested to link with neurodevelopment. For example, toddler temperament traits have been found to associate with differences in GMC; however, studies in infants are lacking although infancy is a rapid period of neurodevelopment as well as GM development. Thus, we aimed to investigate association between infant GMC and temperament.

METHODS

The study population (n = 301, 53% boys) was drawn from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Stool samples were collected from the 2.5-month-old infants and sequenced with 16S Illumina MiSeq platform. GMC taxonomic composition (at Genus and OTU level), observed sample clusters, diversity and richness were investigated in relation to the maternal reports of Infant Behavior Questionnaire -Revised (IBQ-R) at the age of 6 months.

RESULTS

Three sample clusters (Bifidobacterium/Enterobacteriaceae, Bacteroides, V. Dispar) based on GMC were identified, of which Bifidobacterium/Enterobacteriaceae-cluster presented with higher scores on the IBQ-R main dimension regulation and its subscale duration of orienting compared to Bacteroides-cluster. The clusters associated with temperament in a sex-dependent manner. The IBQ-R main dimension surgency (positive emotionality) was associated positively both with genus Bifidobacterium and Streptococcus. Alpha diversity had a negative association with negative emotionality and fear reactivity.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study demonstrating associations, but not causal connections, between GMC and temperament in young infants in a prospective design.

Effects of Gestational Age and Early Parenting on Children's Social Inhibition at 6 Years

Preterm birth (<37 weeks' gestation) has been associated with problems in social functioning. Whether social inhibition is specifically related to preterm birth and whether early parenting may protect against social inhibition difficulties is unknown. To explore effects of gestational age and early parent-infant relationships on social inhibition, 1314 children born at 26-41 weeks gestational age were studied as part of the prospective Bavarian Longitudinal Study. Early parent-infant relationship quality was assessed postnatally with the parent-infant relationship index. Social inhibition was assessed at age 6 years using an experimental procedure, in which nonverbal and verbal responses were coded into social inhibition categories (disinhibited, normally responsive, inhibited). Multinomial logistic regressions indicated that children with lower gestational age showed more socially disinhibited (nonverbal: OR = 1.27 [95% CI = 1.17-1.40], verbal: OR = 1.23 [95% CI 1.13-1.35]) and inhibited (nonverbal: OR = 1.21 [95% CI = 1.11-1.32], verbal: OR = 1.11 [95% CI = 1.01-1.21]) responses. Good early parent-infant relationships were associated with less verbal disinhibition (OR = 0.70 [95% CI = 0.52-0.93]). Findings suggest that children with lower gestational age are at greater risk to be both socially inhibited and disinhibited. Early parenting affected risk of abnormal social responses. Supporting early parent-infant relationships may reduce preterm children's risk for social difficulties.

Maternal and infant characteristics connected to shared pleasure in dyadic interaction

The aim of the study was to analyze which maternal factors (depressive symptoms, effect of life events, maternal sensitivity and structuring) and infant characteristics (temperament, social withdrawal symptoms, interactive behavior, genotype, gender) contribute to shared pleasure (SP) in parent-infant interaction. Participants were 113 mother-infant dyads. The mothers filled in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, and the Life Events Questionnaire. The dyads were videotaped in a free-play situation, and the videos were analyzed using the Alarm Distress Baby Scale and the Emotional Availability Scales. The infants were genotyped for four genes involved in emotion regulation. The occurrence and duration of SP (SP-MD) in mother-infant interactions were analyzed from the videotapes. Higher maternal sensitivity and depressive symptoms, better infant responsiveness, and the infant having the GG variant of the gene tryptophan hydroxylase isoform 2 (TPH2) -307 were associated with the occurrence of SP. Lower level depressive symptoms, better maternal structuring, and greater infant involvement were associated with the longer duration of SP. Those dyads where the mother and infant were best able to read each other's positive cues and to respond to them were more likely to experience mutual positive affect, as seen in SP.

Stability of child temperament: Multiple moderation by child and mother characteristics

This 3-wave longitudinal study focuses on stability of child temperament from 3 to 6 years and considers child age, gender, birth order, and term status as well as mother age, education, anxiety, and depression as moderators of stability. Mothers of approximately 10,000 children participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children rated child temperament. Stability coefficients for child temperament scales were medium to large, and stability was generally robust across moderators except child gender and birth order and mother age and education, which had small moderating effects on reports of stability of child temperament. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Some is known about the stability of temperament in infancy in small samples, but much less is known about the stability of temperament in early childhood or its moderation. What does this study add? This study uses a large sample (˜10,000) to trace the stability of temperament from 3 to 6 years in three waves and considers child age, gender, birth order, and term status as well as mother age, education, anxiety, and depression as moderators of stability.

Developmental patterns of anger from infancy to middle childhood predict problem behaviors at age 8

Anger is a central characteristic of negative affect and is relatively stable from infancy onward. Absolute levels of anger typically peak in early childhood and diminish as children become socialized and better able to regulate emotions. From infancy to school age, however, there are also individual differences in rank-order levels of anger. For example, although decreasing in absolute levels, some children may stay the same and others may increase in rank order relative to their peers. Although change in rank order of anger over time may provide unique insight into children's social development, little is known concerning variations in developmental patterns of anger from a rank-order perspective and how these patterns are related to children's behavioral adjustment. The current study (N = 361) used group-based trajectory analysis and identified 6 distinct patterns of parent-reported child anger by rank across 9 months to 7 years: low-stable rank, average-stable rank, average-decreasing rank, average-increasing rank, high-decreasing rank, and high-stable rank. Most children (65.1%) were in low- to average-rank groups. However, 28.2% and 6.7% of the children were in average-increasing and high-stable groups, respectively. Children in the high-stable group showed elevated levels of externalizing and internalizing problems at age 8 compared to children in the average-stable, average-decreasing, and high-decreasing groups. These findings help to clarify different patterns of anger development across childhood and how they may relate to later problem behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Prenatal exposure to disaster-related traumatic stress and developmental trajectories of temperament in early childhood: Superstorm Sandy pregnancy study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the impact of prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) on the developmental trajectory of temperament and few studies have been able to incorporate a natural disaster as a quasi-experimental stressor. The current study investigated PNMS related to Superstorm Sandy ('Sandy'), a hurricane that struck the New York metropolitan area in October 2012, in terms of objective exposure during pregnancy, subjective stress reaction as assessed by maternal symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and their impact on the developmental changes in temperament during early childhood.

METHOD

A subsample of 318 mother-child dyads was drawn from the Stress in Pregnancy Study. Temperament was measured at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of age.

RESULTS

Objective exposure was associated with greater High-Intensity Pleasure, Approach, Perceptual Sensitivity and Fearfulness, but lower Cuddliness and Duration of Orientation at 6 months. Objective exposure and its interaction with subjective stress reaction predicted developmental changes in temperament. In particular, objective exposure was linked to greater increases in Activity Level but decreases in High-Intensity Pleasure, Approach, and Fearfulness. The combination of objective exposure and subjective stress reaction was also associated with greater increases in Activity Level.

LIMITATIONS

Temperament was measured solely via maternal report. Trimester-specific effects of Sandy on temperament were not examined.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to examine the effects of prenatal maternal exposure to a natural disaster on trajectories of early childhood temperament. Findings suggest that both objective stress exposure and subjective stress reaction in-utero predict developmental trajectories of temperament in early childhood.

The longitudinal association between temperament and physical activity in young children

OBJECTIVE

To examine the longitudinal association of negative affect and physical activity in a population of preschool children.

STUDY DESIGN

Participants included 763 children (53% male) attending scheduled health supervision visits in their primary care physicians' offices. Data were collected at two time points at mean ages 27 (SD=5.4) and 47 (SD=6.2) months. Negative affect (NA) was measured using the Negative Affectivity (frustration/anger, decreased soothability) domain of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire. Physical Activity (PA) was assessed using a parent-report questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses tested the association between NA and PA, adjusting for child age, sex, z-BMI, PA at Time 1, maternal education, household income, and season, and examined for sex differences in the relationship between NA and PA.

RESULTS

The longitudinal association between NA at Time 1 and PA at Time 2 was moderated by sex (p<0.001). After adjusting for covariates, females with greater NA at Time 1 had decreased PA at Time 2 (p=0.01), whereas males with greater NA at Time 1 had increased PA at Time 2 (p=0.01). Specifically, among females, every 1 unit increase in NA at Time 1 was associated with a 9.9min/day decrease in PA at Time 2 (95% CI: -17.1, -2.8).

CONCLUSIONS

NA and PA were associated early in childhood and the effects of NA on PA were gender specific. These findings underscore the importance of longitudinal and gender-specific analyses in mood-obesity research.

The stability of temperament from early childhood to early adolescence: A multi-method, multi-informant examination

Temperament is a core aspect of children's psychological functioning and is assumed to be at least somewhat stable across childhood. However, little research has assessed the stability of temperament from early childhood to early adolescence. Moreover, few studies have examined the influence of measurement and analytic methods on the stability of early temperament over periods of more than a few years. We obtained laboratory observations and mother and father reports of temperamental negative and positive emotionality and effortful control from 559 three-year olds. Approximately 9 years later, children and both parents completed questionnaire measures of similar temperament constructs. Zero-order correlations revealed greater within- than cross-informant stability. In addition, compared to parent reports, early childhood laboratory measures showed greater convergent and divergent validity with child, mother, and father reports at age 12. Finally, latent temperament variables at age 3 composed of laboratory and parent-report measures and latent variables at age 12 composed of parent and child reports showed moderate stability. There was also a weak but significant association of early effortful control with later negative and positive emotionality. Results have implications for assessing temperament and knowledge of the stability of temperament across childhood.

Latent profile and cluster analysis of infant temperament: Comparisons across person-centered approaches

There is renewed interest in person-centered approaches to understanding the structure of temperament. However, questions concerning temperament types are not frequently framed in a developmental context, especially during infancy. In addition, the most common person-centered techniques, cluster analysis (CA) and latent profile analysis (LPA), have not been compared with respect to derived temperament types. To address these gaps, we set out to identify temperament types for younger and older infants, comparing LPA and CA techniques. Multiple data sets (N = 1,356; 672 girls, 677 boys) with maternal ratings of infant temperament obtained using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) were combined. All infants were between 3 and 12 months of age (M = 7.85; SD = 3.00). Due to rapid development in the first year of life, LPA and CA were performed separately for younger (n = 731; 3 to 8 months of age) and older (n = 625; 9 to 12 months of age) infants. Results supported 3-profile/cluster solutions as optimal for younger infants, and 5-profile/cluster solutions for the older subsample, indicating considerable differences between early/mid and late infancy. LPA and CA solutions produced relatively comparable types for younger and older infants. Results are discussed in the context of developmental changes unique to the end of the first year of life, which likely account for the present findings. (PsycINFO Database Record

Adolescents' and mothers' temperament types and their roles in early adolescents' socioemotional functioning

The present study examined adolescents’ and mothers’ temperament types and their roles in the socioemotional functioning of early adolescents. A total of 869 sixth-grade students and 668 mothers participated in the study. The students rated their temperament and socioemotional functioning and the mothers rated their own temperament. Latent profile analyses identified four temperament types among the adolescents (resilient, reserved, average, and mixed) and three types among the mothers (resilient, average, and mixed). The results showed that the adolescents with resilient or reserved temperaments reported significantly fewer conduct problems and emotional symptoms, less hyperactivity, and higher prosociality than adolescents with a mixed temperament type. The most adaptive adolescent–mother temperament matches were between a resilient or reserved adolescent and a resilient or average mother; these adolescents reported the highest levels of socioemotional functioning. Mothers with mixed or average temperaments were related to fewer conduct problems and emotional symptoms and less hyperactivity among adolescents with a mixed temperament, while mothers with a resilient temperament type were beneficial for prosocial behavior among adolescents with a mixed temperament. These findings increase understanding of the role of temperament and the interplay between adolescents’ and mothers’ temperaments in the development of early adolescents’ socioemotional adjustment.

The role of sustained attention, maternal sensitivity, and infant temperament in the development of early self-regulation

This study investigated infant predictors of early cognitive and emotional self-regulation from an intrinsic and caregiving environmental perspective. Sustained attention, reactive aspects of infant temperament, and maternal sensitivity were assessed at 10 months (n = 124) and early self-regulation (including executive functions, EF, and emotion regulation) was assessed at 18 months. The results indicated that sustained attention predicted early EF, which provide empirical support for the hierarchical framework of EF development, advocating early attention as a foundation for the development of cognitive self-regulation. Maternal sensitivity and surgency predicted emotion regulation, in that infants of sensitive mothers showed more regulatory behaviours and a longer latency to distress, whereas high levels of surgency predicted low emotion regulation, suggesting both the caregiving environment and temperament as important in the development of self-regulation. Interaction effects suggested high sustained attention to be a protective factor for children of insensitive mothers, in relation to emotion regulation. In addition, high levels of maternal sensitivity seemed to foster development of emotion regulation among children with low to medium levels of sustained attention and/or surgency. In all, our findings point to the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in infant development of self-regulation.

Prenatal phthalate exposures and child temperament at 12 and 24 months

INTRODUCTION

Gestational phthalate exposures have been adversely associated with attention, externalizing, and internalizing behaviors in childhood. Early childhood temperament may be a marker of later behavioral patterns. We therefore sought to determine whether gestational phthalate exposures were associated with infant and toddler temperament.

METHODS

The Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Study is a prospective cohort study of children born between May 1998 and July 2001 in New York City (N=404). Phthalate metabolites were measured in spot urine samples collected from pregnant women in their third trimester. Child temperament was assessed by parental report at 12-months using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ) (N=204) and at 24-months using the Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire (TBAQ) (N=279). We used multiple linear regression to evaluate associations between urinary phthalate metabolites and eleven temperament domains.

RESULTS

Phthalate biomarker concentrations were weakly associated with lower gross motor activity levels as well as higher duration of orienting at the 12-month assessment. Mono(3-carboxypropyl) phthalate (MCPP), monobenzyl phthalate (MBzP) and the sum of metabolites of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (∑DEHP) were associated with lower levels of smiling and laughing at 12 months. At 24-months, social fear and lower pleasure was linked to higher concentrations of MCPP and MBzP, and higher ∑DEHP was weakly associated with increased anger levels at 24-months.

CONCLUSIONS

Though we observed some weak associations between biomarkers of prenatal exposure to phthalates and temperament at 12- and 24-months, overall phthalates biomarkers were not strongly associated with alterations in temperament.

Care for Postpartum Depression: What Do Women and Their Partners Prefer?

PURPOSE

To compare the preferences of those who accept a mental health assessment and those who do not.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Thirty couples participated in a qualitative study. Nineteen couples accepted a mental health assessment and 11 declined.

FINDINGS

Acceptors wanted more contact with professionals. Decliners preferred support from their informal network, parental leave, and exercise. However, acceptors also cited these preferences.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Nurses should tailor care to couples' preferences, helping them identify and utilize preferred resources. Mental health care might be more acceptable to decliners if provided in obstetrical care.

The Association Between Infant Temperament and Breastfeeding Duration: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about the relationship between infant temperament and breastfeeding. The few studies investigating this report mixed results. Some suggest that difficult infants are breastfed for shorter duration, others report opposing results or no association between the two.

AIM

This study investigated associations between infant difficult temperament and breastfeeding duration in a nationally representative cohort of Irish 9-month-old infants.

METHODS

Breastfed, normal birth-weight singletons from The Infant Cohort of the Growing Up in Ireland Study (n = 5,955) were considered in this research. The Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ), completed by the mother, was used to assess four different dimensions of difficult temperament: fussy, unpredictable, unadaptable, and dull. Our main interest was the fussy dimension as this is captured best by the ICQ. Initially, a logistic regression (LR) model having the binary version, short (<90 days) or long breastfeeding (≥90 days) as outcome variable, was constructed. Next, a proportional odds logistic regression (POLR) model examining the five-level categorical version (≤1 week, 2 weeks-<1 month, 1-<3 months, 3-<6 months, and ≥6 months) of breastfeeding duration was developed. All regression models were adjusted for relevant sociodemographic data.

RESULTS

A total of 3,119 infants were breastfed for less than 90 days, while 2,836 were breastfed for 90 days or longer. The LR and POLR models showed a mild inverse association between infant fussiness/difficultness and breastfeeding duration (LR: OR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.97-0.99, POLR: OR = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.97-0.99). Higher infant unpredictability is associated with longer breastfeeding duration (LR: OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.02-1.07, POLR: OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.02-1.06).

CONCLUSIONS

In this cross-sectional study, we found that breastfeeding duration was inversely associated with infant fussiness and positively associated with infant unpredictability.

Focusing on the positive: a review of the role of child positive affect in developmental psychopathology

This review proposes a transactional model of child positive affect (PA) to reflect the ways that PA, in various contexts, may confer both risk and protection for psychosocial adjustment. Though research has largely explored the ways that low PA relates to maladjustment in youth, much less research has focused on the ways that PA can facilitate adjustment, particularly under conditions of risk. Yet, theory suggests that a greater emphasis on PA as a protective factor is an important endeavor in developmental psychopathology research; such conceptual issues are explored in this review. This review also seeks to spur a more nuanced approach to the study of child PA through the use of increased multi-method, longitudinal assessments as well as the consideration of contextual factors. Building upon this research base is important for aiding in the development of intervention and prevention efforts that attempt to promote positive psychosocial development and mitigate the course of psychopathology in youth at risk for PA difficulties.

Infant temperament: stability by age, gender, birth order, term status, and socioeconomic status

Two complementary studies focused on stability of infant temperament across the 1st year and considered infant age, gender, birth order, term status, and socioeconomic status (SES) as moderators. Study 1 consisted of 73 mothers of firstborn term girls and boys queried at 2, 5, and 13 months of age. Study 2 consisted of 335 mothers of infants of different gender, birth order, term status, and SES queried at 6 and 12 months. Consistent positive and negative affectivity factors emerged at all time points across both studies. Infant temperament proved stable and robust across gender, birth order, term status, and SES. Stability coefficients for temperament factors and scales were medium to large for shorter (< 9 months) interassessment intervals and small to medium for longer (> 10 months) intervals.

Evidence of developmental continuity from birth to 1 year: sleep, temperament, problem solving, and recognition memory

BACKGROUND

Research evidence is limited regarding developmentally appropriate care. Variations exits with respect to test procedure type, infant age at testing, and test relatedness.

PURPOSE

To assess developmental continuity using multiple developmental measures from birth to 12 months in a single cohort of term infants.

METHODS

A secondary analysis, longitudinal, correlational design was used to assess developmental continuity in a single cohort of infants (n 27). Measures included: sleep, using the Motility Monitoring System (first 48 hours of life); temperament, using the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ, 6 months) and the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire (RITQ, 12 months); problem-solving, using the Willatts Infant Planning Test (PS, 9 and 12 months); and the Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence (FTII, 6 and 9 months).

RESULTS

Using Spearmen correlation, significant correlations included: (1) Sleep and ICQ: transitional sleep and "unpredictable" (r 0.455, P .017), "unadaptable" (r 0.420, P .026), and "dull" (r 0.416, P .028); (2) ICQ and FTII 6 months (r -0.512, P .008); (3) RITQ "approachability" and quiet sleep (r 0.662, P .005); (4) arousals in active sleep and PS at 9 months (r -0.528, P .016).

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Given our reported continuity between early sleep and later developmental measures, sleep-wake state should be considered in caregiving and environmental control to support sleep. Parental education on facilitating sleep-wake regulation in the home environment is essential.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH

These data support the existence of continuity between early sleep and later developmental milestones warranting a larger-scale investigation. Specific focus on development of care strategies for facilitating sleep immediately following birth is warranted.

Developing Attention: Behavioral and Brain Mechanisms

Brain networks underlying attention are present even during infancy and are critical for the developing ability of children to control their emotions and thoughts. For adults, individual differences in the efficiency of attentional networks have been related to neuromodulators and to genetic variations. We have examined the development of attentional networks and child temperament in a longitudinal study from infancy (7 months) to middle childhood (7 years). Early temperamental differences among infants, including smiling and laughter and vocal reactivity, are related to self-regulation abilities at 7 years. However, genetic variations related to adult executive attention, while present in childhood, are poor predictors of later control, in part because individual genetic variationmay have many small effects and in part because their influence occurs in interaction with caregiver behavior and other environmental influences. While brain areas involved in attention are present during infancy, their connectivity changes and leads to improvement in control of behavior. It is also possible to influence control mechanisms through training later in life. The relation between maturation and learning may allow advances in our understanding of human brain development.

Human infancy…and the rest of the lifespan

Human infancy has been studied as a platform for hypothesis and theory testing, as a major physiological and psychological adjustment, as an object of adults' effects as well as a source of effects on adults, for its comparative value, as a stage of life, and as a setting point for the life course. Following an orientation to infancy studies, including previous reviews and a discussion of the special challenges infants pose to research, this article focuses on infancy as a foundation and catalyst of human development in the balance of the life course. Studies of stability and prediction from infancy illustrate the depth and complexity of modern research on infants and provide a long-awaited reply to key philosophical and practical questions about the meaningfulness and significance of infancy.

A longitudinal study of temperament continuity through IBQ, TBAQ and CBQ

The aim of this work was to study the continuity of temperament in a Spanish sample (n = 60), covering the developmental stages of infancy, toddlerhood and childhood. Temperamental dimensions showed, with few exceptions, as much homotypic as heterotypic continuity as was to be expected. At the level of latent superconstructs continuity, we found that Anger and Fear followed different developmental paths and showed continuity over all the periods evaluated. Positive Affect/Regulation superconstruct showed continuity from infancy to toddlerhood. From toddlerhood, Positive Affect/Regulation showed continuity with the superconstruct of Effortful Control but not with the superconstruct of Surgency/Extraversion. At an ipsative level, we found two groups of subjects, labeled 'nonexpressive/controlled' and 'noncontrolled/expressive'. Generally, these results confirm the stability of temperament in the periods analyzed and underline the importance of toddlerhood as a transitional period in the maturity of self-regulatory capabilities shown in childhood.