Aggregate temperament scores from multiple countries: Associations with aggregate personality traits, cultural dimensions, and allelic frequency

Genetic predictors of cultural values variation between societies

Associations between the STin2 and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms within the serotonin transporter gene, SLC6A4, and culture across societies were examined. Based on an analysis of 75 primary studies (28,726 individuals), STin2 allelic frequencies were found to vary widely across countries, ranging from 26% in Germany to 85% in Singapore. Across 53 countries, and after controlling for all major environmental influences of culture, STin2 and 5-HTTLPR were found to explain 23.6% unique variance in monumentalism but none in individualism. Our findings evidence a significant role of genetics in predicting cross-societal cultural values variation, and potentially speak to the need for and importance of incorporating both nature and nurture in theories of cultural values variation across societies.

Relations between bedtime parenting behaviors and temperament across 14 cultures

Objectives

The present study examined parental sleep-supporting practices during toddlerhood in relation to temperament across 14 cultures. We hypothesized that passive sleep-supporting techniques (e.g., talking, cuddling), but not active techniques (e.g., walking, doing an activity together), would be associated with less challenging temperament profiles: higher Surgency (SUR) and Effortful Control (EC) and lower Negative Emotionality (NE), with fine-grained dimensions exhibiting relationships consistent with their overarching factors (e.g., parallel passive sleep-supporting approach effects for dimensions of NE).

Methods

Caregivers (N = 841) across 14 cultures (M = 61 families per site) reported toddler (between 17 and 40 months of age; 52% male) temperament and sleep-supporting activities. Utilizing linear multilevel regression models and group-mean centering procedures, we assessed the role of between- and within-cultural variance in sleep-supporting practices in relation to temperament.

Results

Both within-and between-culture differences in passive sleep-supporting techniques were associated with temperament attributes, (e.g., lower NE at the between-culture level; higher within-culture EC). For active techniques only within-culture effects were significant (e.g., demonstrating a positive association with NE). Adding sleep-supporting behaviors to the regression models accounted for significantly more between-culture temperament variance than child age and gender alone.

Conclusion

Hypotheses were largely supported. Findings suggest parental sleep practices could be potential targets for interventions to mitigate risk posed by challenging temperament profiles (e.g., reducing active techniques that are associated with greater distress proneness and NE).

Sex-dependent association between variability in infants' OXTR methylation at birth and negative affectivity at 3 months

BACKGROUND

Sex-specific differences in DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) have been shown in adults and are related to several mental disorders. Negative affectivity early in life is a trans-diagnostic risk marker of later psychopathology and is partly under genetic control. However, sex-specific variations in OXTR methylation (OXTRm) in infants and their associations with negative affectivity are still unknown.

AIMS

Here, we explored sex differences in the association between infant OXTRm at birth and negative affectivity at 3 months of age.

METHODS

Infants and their mothers (N = 224) were recruited at delivery. Infants' methylation status was assessed in 13 CpG sites within the OXTR gene intron 1 region (chr3: 8810654-8810919) in buccal cells at birth while 3-month-old infants' negative affectivity was assessed by mothers using a well-validated temperament questionnaire.

RESULTS

OXTRm at 12 CpG sites was higher in females than in males. Moreover, higher infants' OXTRm at 6 specific CpG sites was associated with greater negative affectivity in males, but not in females.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide new insights into the role of sex-dependent epigenetic mechanisms linking OXTRm with early infants' emotional development. Understanding the degree to which epigenetic processes relate to early temperamental variations may help inform the etiology of later childhood psychopathological outcomes.

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.

Cultural contributors to negative emotionality: A multilevel analysis from the Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium

This study advances the cross-cultural temperament literature by comparing temperament ratings of toddlers from 14 nations. Multilevel modeling (MLM) procedures were utilized to regress negative emotionality (NE) and component subscales on Hofstede’s cultural value dimensions while controlling for age and gender. More individualistic values were associated with lower NE, and component discomfort, fear, motor activity, perceptual sensitivity, and soothability scales. The discomfort subscale was negatively associated with power distance and positively associated with masculine cultural values. Higher ratings of shyness were related to a more long-term cultural orientation. Results illustrate the feasibility of an MLM approach to cross-cultural research and provide a new perspective on the intersection of culture and temperament development. Limitations and future implications are discussed.

Leveraging Python to Process Cross-Cultural Temperament Interviews: A Novel Platform for Text Analysis

During childhood, parents represent the most commonly used source of their child’s temperament information and, typically, do so by responding to questionnaires. Despite their wide-ranging applications, interviews present notorious data reduction challenges, as quantification of narratives has proven to be a labor-intensive process. However, for the purposes of this study, the labor-intensive nature may have conferred distinct advantages. The present study represents a demonstration project aimed at leveraging emerging technologies for this purpose. Specifically, we used Python natural language processing capabilities to analyze semistructured temperament interviews conducted with U.S. and German mothers of toddlers, expecting to identify differences between these two samples in the frequency of words used to describe individual differences, along with some similarities. Two different word lists were used: (a) a set of German personality words and (b) temperament-related words extracted from the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ). Analyses using the German trait word demonstrated that mothers from Germany described their toddlers as significantly more “cheerful” and “careful” compared with U.S. caregivers. According to U.S. mothers, their children were more “independent,” “emotional,” and “timid.” For the ECBQ analysis, German mothers described their children as “calm” and “careful” more often than U.S. mothers. U.S. mothers, however, referred to their children as “upset,” “happy,” and “frustrated” more frequently than German caregivers. The Python code developed herein illustrates this software as a viable research tool for cross-cultural investigations.

Assessing longitudinal pathways between maternal depressive symptoms, parenting self-esteem and infant temperament

BACKGROUND

Previous studies of relations between parenting self-concepts, parental adjustment and child temperament have been ambiguous regarding the direction of influence; and have rarely followed families from pregnancy through the first year of life. The current study examines change and stability in maternal depressive symptoms, parenting competences and child temperament through the perinatal period until nine months postpartum.

METHODS

Czech mothers (N = 282) participated at three time points: the third trimester of pregnancy (Time 1), six weeks (Time 2) and nine months postpartum (Time 3). Questionnaire data concerned depressive symptoms (T1, T2, T3), maternal parenting self-esteem (T1, T2) and sense of competence (T3), and child temperament (T2, T3). A path model was used to examine concurrent and longitudinal relations between these variables.

RESULTS

The analyses indicated longitudinal stability of all constructs, as well as concurrent relations between them. Longitudinal relations supported child-to-parent, rather than parent-to-child, effects: child difficult temperament predicted decreases in perceived maternal parenting competences, but maternal variables did not predict change in infant temperament. In addition, we observed weak mutual relations between maternal depression levels and parenting competences, such that maternal depression diminished perceived parenting competences that in turn contributed to higher levels of depression.

CONCLUSION

Mothers' confidence in their ability to parent is influenced by their experience with a difficult infant and by their depressive symptoms during the child's first year of life. Depressive symptoms are, in turn, aggravated by mothers' low perceived competences in the parenting role.

Maternal Self-Construal, Maternal Socialization of Emotions and Child Emotion Regulation in a Sample of Romanian Mother-Toddler Dyads

Over the recent years, there is growing recognition of the social and cultural regulatory processes that act upon individual emotions. The adult-to-child social regulation of emotion is even more relevant, given the development of child self-regulatory abilities during early years. Although it is acknowledged that parental regulatory attempts to their children’s emotional expressions are influenced by cultural models, relatively little is known about the specific relationship between parental cultural models and socialization practices that foster emotion self-regulation, particularly in the case of toddlers. Therefore, in the present study, our first aim was to examine, in a Romanian sample of mother-toddler dyads, the relationships between maternal cultural model of self and maternal regulatory attempts targeting toddlers’ emotions during a delay of gratification task, while controlling for maternal perceptions of child individual characteristics, namely temperament. The second aim was to analyze, within the delay of gratification task, the relations between maternal regulatory attempts, child regulatory strategies and child affect expression, as the outcome of emotion regulation. Results showed that mothers scored higher for Independence as compared to Interdependence dimensions of self-construal. Also, the multidimensional analysis of self-construal revealed that Autonomy/Assertiveness scores were significantly higher than Relational Interdependent scores. Moreover, different dimensions of Independence predicted different maternal regulatory strategies employed during the delay of gratification task. This pattern of results suggests that maternal representations of an independent self, evidenced in our sample, are reflected in regulatory practices, aimed to develop primary control in the toddler. Moreover, our data revealed several significant associations between maternal regulatory strategies and child regulatory strategies expressed during the delay of gratification task. Finally, we demonstrated that child self-regulation mediated the relation between maternal regulatory attempts and child expression of affect during this task.

Parents, Television, and Children’s Emotional Expressions: A Cross-Cultural Multilevel Model

Parents and media both play an important role in the socialization of children’s emotions, yet it remains unclear whether these socializing influences vary by culture. We studied the joint influences of parents and television on children’s expression of four basic emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, and fear) using self-report survey data from 3570 six- to 15-year-olds from 13 Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and South American countries. Perceived parental approval positively predicted self-reported expression of all four emotions. In addition, children’s approval of TV characters’ expression of happiness and anger (but not sadness and fear) positively predicted self-reported expressions of these emotions. A multilevel model combining cultural indicators (individualism, indulgence, assertiveness, humane orientation) and sociopolitical variables (Human Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, Grade Point Average) at the country level with individual-level variables (age, gender, media use) suggested that parental socialization of sadness, and media socialization of anger, varied as a function of some cultural indicators (assertiveness and humane orientation). Overall, though, despite theorizing about cultural differences, parental approval and (to a lesser extent) children’s approval of media models tended to predict children’s emotion displays rather consistently across a wide array of countries.

COMMENTARY ON FATHERS' PLAY: MEASUREMENT, CONCEPTUALIZATION, CULTURE, AND CONNECTIONS WITH CHILD DEVELOPMENT

The diverse set of studies in this special issue on fathers' play includes empirical research from several countries, observational measures of play, and multiple children's outcomes, including language, negativity, social competence, aggression and internalizing problems. The chief conclusion across studies is that the role of paternal play is important in various domains of child development. This is encouraging, yet also disturbing given the results of the State of the World's Fathers: Time for Action report 2017, revealing the low amount of care fathers provide to their children worldwide, relative to mothers. In this commentary, the measurement and conceptualization of play are discussed, as well as cultural considerations regarding the meaning and consequences of play. The findings of the studies are integrated in order to guide future research, addressing what domains of child development appear to be influenced by what types of paternal play, and discussing the contexts that affect paternal play. Lastly, the collective results are related to recent efforts to increase fathers' involvement and implications for interventions are discussed.

Adaptation of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised for use in Ethiopia: Expanding cross-cultural investigation of temperament development

Cross-cultural differences in temperament were evaluated for Ethiopian (N=109) and U.S. (N=109) samples of infants. We anticipated that the Sidama version of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R; Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) developed for use in Ethiopia would demonstrate satisfactory psychometric properties, and hypothesized significant cross-cultural differences in levels of fine-grained temperament characteristics. Interactions between culture, infant age, and sex were also considered. Internal consistency was satisfactory for 13 of the 14 IBQ-R scales (with a somewhat low estimate observed for Duration of Orienting), and an examination of the structure indicated patterns similar to those observed in the US, and elsewhere. Differences between Ethiopia and the US were noted for Activity Level, Distress to Limitations, Fear, Smiling/Laughter, Falling Reactivity, Cuddliness/Affiliation, Sadness, Approach, and Vocal Reactivity. Parents of infants in the US reported higher levels of attributes associated with Surgency/Positive Affectivity (Activity, Smiling/Laughter, Approach Vocal Reactivity), whereas Ethiopian infants' scores were higher for Distress to Limitations and Fear, linked with the over-arching temperament factor of Negative Emotionality; however, US infants received higher ratings on Sadness, also associated with this factor. Higher Falling Reactivity, a regulation-related attribute, was reported for Ethiopian infants, with US babies receiving higher Cuddliness/Affiliation scores. Significant culture*age interactions were observed for Activity and Fear, along with a significant culture*age*sex interaction for Distress to Limitations.