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Child Temperament (child + temperament)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	52%
Psychology	31%
Medical Sciences	15%

Selected Abstracts

Child temperament in three U.S. cultural groups,

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2009
Marc H. Bornstein
Temperament among children (N = 111 20-month-olds) from three cultural backgrounds in the United States (Latin American, Japanese American, and European American) was investigated. In accord with a biobehavioral universalist perspective on the expression of early temperament, few significant group differences in child temperament were found, regardless of cultural background; however, factors associated with maternal reports of child temperament differed by cultural group. The findings provide insight into the nature of child temperament generally and temperament of children in immigrant families specifically as well as parenting in immigrant families. [source]

Multilevel Factors Influencing Maternal Stress During the First Three Years

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 4 2002
Miriam Mulsow
This prospective study applies family stress theory to the influence of personal, child, and familial factors on a mother's parenting stress during the first 3 years of her infant's life. Participants included 134 mothers and their infants at ages 1, 6, 15, 24, and 36 months from one site of a multisite, longitudinal study. Mother's personality was most predictive of parenting stress cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Intimacy with partner reduced parenting stress early in the infant's life and at 36 months, whereas general social support was more important in the second year. Child temperament was influential at 1 and 36 months. Counterintuitively, mothers who were more satisfied with work or school choices were more likely to be chronically stressed. Implications are discussed. [source]

Transactional development of parent personality and child temperament

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2008
Niina Komsi
Abstract 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. [source]

Correlates of Coparenting During Infancy,

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 3 2005
Eric W. Lindsey
Abstract: This study examined family characteristics associated with the coparenting behavior of 60 parents with an 11- to 15-month-old infant (30 boys, 30 girls) during a structured triadic play session. Mothers reported on family demographics, social support, and child temperament. Both parents reported on their self-esteem and childrearing beliefs. Fathers displayed more supportive coparenting behavior than mothers. Mothers' intrusive coparenting behavior differed based on the number of children, parent's employment status, and child gender. Social support, parental self-esteem, and child temperament were significant correlates of individual coparenting behavior. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for family theory and family practice. [source]

Foster Family Characteristics and Behavioral and Emotional Problems of Foster Children: A Narrative Review,

FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 1 2001
John G. Orme
The purpose of this article is to review the literature on the foster family characteristics that are thought to contribute to the behavioral and emotional problems of foster children. The review is shaped by an understanding of the personal and familial factors associated with children's problem behaviors in the general population. These factors include parenting, the family home environment, family functioning, marital functioning, family demography, child temperament, parents' mental health, and social support. Limitations within the existing research on these foster family characteristics are noted, and suggestions for future research are provided. [source]

The influence of family environment and child temperament on work/family role strain for mothers and fathers

INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2003
Marceline Lee
Abstract This study examined the additive effect of structural variables, child characteristics, and the family environment on mothers' and fathers' work/family role strain. Differences between mothers and fathers on these variables were also examined. The sample consisted of 36 dualearner families whose children had been in daycare from infancy through 4 years of age. Structural variables included work schedules and time spent with child for mothers only, fathers only, and both parents together with child. Child characteristics included temperament and health. Family environment variables included different components of the family environment (conflict, cohesion, expressiveness, organization, and control) and parenting daily hassles. Results showed that mothers' time with child and caregiving for child were greater than fathers'. Mothers reported more expressiveness in the family and more daily hassles with children than fathers. Mothers' level of role strain was also significantly higher than fathers'. For mothers, role strain was associated with hours away from home, child sociability, family conflict, and daily hassles resulting in an R2 of 0.57. Fathers' role strain was associated with family expressiveness, organization, and their wives' daily hassles resulting in an R2 of 0.37. Data suggest that mothers' and fathers' role strain may be driven by somewhat different factors. For women, aspects of the family and the child and work hours accounted for a considerable portion of the variance while for men, only aspects of the family environment were associated with their level of role strain. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Child temperament in three U.S. cultural groups,

Mental health in infants with esophageal atresia,

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009
Anne Faugli
Chronic somatic illness in infancy may challenge the development of mental health and impinge the infant's capability to form close interpersonal relationships. Esophageal atresia (EA) is a congenital anomaly requiring neonatal surgery, medical aftertreatment, and extended hospitalization. The aim of the study was to assess mental health and to find prognostic factors for mental health among infants with EA. Thirty-nine infants treated consecutively during 2000 to 2003 and their mothers were included. Infant mental health was assessed by Diagnostic Classification: 0,3 (Zero to Three, 1994). Medical and environmental data were collected from medical records and semistructured interview with the mothers. Child development was assessed with the Bayley scales, second edition (N. Bayley, 1993). Maternal psychological distress, anxiety, and child temperament were assessed by self-report questionnaires: the General Health Questionnaire, 30-item version (D. Goldberg & P. Williams, 1988); the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (C.D. Spielberger, R. Gorsuch, & R. Lushene, 1970); and the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (M.K. Rothbart, 1981). Thirty-one percent of the infants with EA showed mental health disorders by 1 year of age. Prognostic factors predicting mental health were posttraumatic symptoms reported by mother, more than one operation, mechanical ventilation beyond 1 day, and moderate/severe chronic family strain. Relational trauma, vulnerable attachment, and impaired self-development are highlighted as possible pathways for psychopathology. Children with EA are vulnerable to mental health disorders, and this study may help clinicians to identify children at risk. [source]

The development of maternal self-esteem

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2007
C. Farrow
Although an important theoretical concept, little is known about the development of maternal self-esteem. This study explores the significance of maternal cognitions, psychopathological symptoms, and child temperament in the prediction of prenatal and postnatal maternal self-esteem. During pregnancy 162 women completed measures assessing their unhealthy core beliefs, psychopathological symptoms, and self-esteem. At 1 year postpartum 87 of these women completed measures assessing their self-esteem and their child's temperament. Overall maladaptive maternal core beliefs and psychopathological symptoms during pregnancy explained 19% of the variance in prenatal maternal self-esteem. Forty-two percent of the variance in maternal self-esteem at 1 year could be explained by a combination of prenatal maternal self-esteem, mental health symptoms, maternal core beliefs, and more unsociable infant temperament. Underlying maternal cognitive structures may be important in determining the development of maternal self-esteem. [source]

Sustained withdrawal behavior in clinic-referred and nonreferred infants

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 3 2006
Daphna Dollberg
To examine the relations between infants' sustained withdrawal behavior and children's mental health status and maternal and child relational behavior, 36 clinic-referred and 43 control infants were evaluated. Families were visited at home, mother-child free play and feeding interactions were videotaped, and mothers completed self-report measures. Interactions were coded for sustained withdrawal using the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB; Guedeney and Fermanian, 2001) and for global relational patterns with the Coding of Interactive Behavior (CIB; Feldman, 1998). Higher ADBB scores were found for the referred group, with many infants (38.9% ) scoring above the clinical cutoff (vs. 11.6% in the control group). More negative relational patterns were found for the withdrawn group in terms of higher maternal intrusiveness, lower reciprocity, and lower child involvement. Associations were found between maternal and child behavior during play and feeding and child sustained withdrawal behavior at play. Sustained withdrawal also was associated with unpredictable child temperament and lower sense of parental self-efficacy. Maternal depressive symptoms were higher in the referred group and correlated with maternal and child relational patterns. The findings contribute to the construct and discriminant validity of the CIB and the ADBB coding systems, and suggest that sustained withdrawal may serve as a risk indicator for early socioemotional disorders. [source]

Infant temperament, pleasure in parenting, and marital happiness in adoptive families,

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 5 2001
Leslie D. Leve
Temperamental characteristics have been related to later externalizing and internalizing behavioral outcomes. To assess the relationship between temperament and the early family environment, we measured infant temperament, pleasure in parenting, and marital happiness via parent report in 99 families with a nonrelative adoptive infant. Perceptions of child temperament were assessed using two subscales of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ; Rothbart, 1981). Mothers and fathers who rated their adoptive child as showing more Distress to Limitations (on the IBQ) reported less pleasure in routine parenting activities; this effect was mediated by marital happiness for fathers. Mothers reported less pleasure in parenting with infants perceived to be more temperamentally fearful (on the IBQ). The bidirectional relationship between temperamental characteristics and pleasure in parenting is discussed. © 2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. [source]

Preparation of parents by teaching of distraction techniques does not reduce child anxiety at anaesthetic induction.

PEDIATRIC ANESTHESIA, Issue 9 2002
A. Watson
Introduction For those children having surgery, induction of anaesthesia is one of the most stressful procedures the child experiences perioperatively. Current work has failed to show a benefit of parental presence at induction of anaesthesia for all children. The reasons for lack of effect may include the high anxiety levels of some parents and also that the role for parents at their child's induction is not delineated. The main aim of this study was to see if parental preparation by teaching of distraction techniques could reduce their child's anxiety during intravenous induction of anaesthesia. Methods After ethics committee approval 40 children aged 2,10 years old, ASA status I or II undergoing daycase surgery under general anaesthesia were enrolled into the study. To avoid possible confounding factors children with a history of previous, surgery, chronic illness or developmental delay were excluded form participation. No children were given sedative premedication. After written informed consent by the parent, each child and parent was randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. Parents in the intervention group received preparation from a play specialist working on the children's surgical ward. It involved preparation for events in the anaesthetic room and instruction on methods of distraction for their child during induction using novel toys, books or blowing bubbles appropriate to the child's age. Preoperative information collected included demographic and baseline data. The temperament of the child was measured using the EASI (Emotionality, Activity, Sociability, Impulsivity) instrument of child temperament(l). In the anaesthetic room all children were planned to have intravenous induction of anaesthesia after prior application of EMLA cream. Anxiety of the child was measured by the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS)(2) by a blinded independent observer at three time points: entrance to the anaesthetic room, intravenous cannulation and at anaesthesia induction. Cooperation of the child was measured by the Induction Compliance Checklist (ICC) by the same observer (3). Postoperative data collected included parental satisfaction and anxiety scores measured by the Stait Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)(4) and at one week the behaviour of the child was measured Using the Posthospitalisation Behavioural Questionnaire (PHBQ)(5). Normally distributed data were analysed by a two-sample t-test, categorical data by Pearson's Chi-squared test and non-parametric data by the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Results One parent withdrew after enrolment. This left 22 children in the control group and 17 in the intervention group. There were no significant differences in demographic and baseline data of the children between the two groups including ethnic origin, number of siblings, birth order of the child, recent stressful events in the child's life, previous hospital admissions and the temperament of the child. Parent demographics were also similar between groups including parent's age, sex, relationship to child and level of education. There were no significant differences in child anxiety or cooperation during induction measured by mYPAS and ICC between the control and intervention groups. More parents in the preparation group distracted their child than those without preparation but this did not reach significance. Parental anxiety immediately postinduction was similar between groups as was the level of parental satisfaction. The incidence of development of new negative postoperative behaviour of the child at one week was not significantly different between groups. Discussion This study shows that giving an active role for parents in the induction room, particularly by instructing them on distracting techniques for their child, does not reduce their child's anxiety compared to conventional parental presence. We conclude resources should not be directed at this type of parental preparation. Further work should examine the usefulness of distraction by nursing staff or play specialists during anaesthetic induction. [source]

Early developmental precursors of impulsive and inattentive behavior: from infancy to middle childhood

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 4 2002
Sheryl L. Olson
Background: We examined infancy and toddler-age precursors of impulsivity and inattention in school-age children. Children (50 boys, 39 girls) had been participants since infancy in the Bloomington Longitudinal Study. Method: Individual differences in children's self-regulatory competence were assessed at 8 years of age, using laboratory tests and observations of three central constructs: Inhibitory Control, Behavioral Control, and Attentional Disengagement. Results: We found that measures of caregiver,child interaction, child temperament, and child cognitive competence during the toddler period significantly predicted variations in children's later impulsive functioning. However, the strength of these relationships, and the type and combination of significant risk factors, were differentially patterned in relation to specific subtypes of later child impulsivity. Conclusions: These data provide further evidence for the multidimensional nature of child impulsivity, and they highlight the importance of examining toddler-age precursors of children's later self-regulatory competence. [source]

Family Adversity, Positive Peer Relationships, and Children's Externalizing Behavior: A Longitudinal Perspective on Risk and Resilience

CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2002
Michael M. Criss
Peer acceptance and friendships were examined as moderators in the link between family adversity and child externalizing behavioral problems. Data on family adversity (i.e., ecological disadvantage, violent marital conflict, and harsh discipline) and child temperament and social information processing were collected during home visits from 585 families with 5,year,old children. Children's peer acceptance, friendship, and friends' aggressiveness were assessed with sociometric methods in kindergarten and grade 1. Teachers provided ratings of children's externalizing behavior problems in grade 2. Peer acceptance served as a moderator for all three measures of family adversity, and friendship served as a moderator for harsh discipline. Examination of regression slopes indicated that family adversity was not significantly associated with child externalizing behavior at high levels of positive peer relationships. These moderating effects generally were not qualified by child gender, ethnicity, or friends' aggressiveness, nor were they accounted for by child temperament or social information,processing patterns. The need for process,oriented studies of risk and protective factors is stressed. [source]

Transactional development of parent personality and child temperament

The development of maternal self-esteem

Translation and restandardization of an instrument: the Early Infant Temperament Questionnaire

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2003
Elisabeth O.C. Hall PhD RN
Aims of the study. ,To test the psychometric properties of a Danish translation of the Early Infant Temperament Questionnaire (EITQ) and to establish standards for scoring the questionnaire. Rationale. ,The general aim was to create a translation that remained close to the original version, was meaningful for the Danish participants, and had acceptable psychometric properties. Background. ,Patterns of temperament can be discerned early in life and tend to persist over time and across situations. For the past 50 years, temperament has been studied by theorists, clinicians and nurse clinicians to predict behaviour, discover interventions that prevent serious behaviour disturbances, and help parents understand the implications of their child's temperament. Thomas and Chess's conceptualization of temperament in nine categories was the framework for the development of the English-language EITQ. Research methods. ,The translation followed a stepwise process of translation, back translation and consensus. A convenience sample of 204 Danish mothers with 1,4-month old infants completed the translated questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire in 1999. Results. ,Alpha coefficients for the nine subscales ranged from 0·59 to 0·82. All alpha coefficients were comparable to or higher than those reported on the original United States standardization study. There were statistically significant differences between reported United States mean scores and those in the Danish sample. Discussion. ,The psychometric properties of the Danish translation are equal to or better than those reported for the United States study. Differences in mean scores or most subscales point to the need to create Danish profiles for scoring. Conclusions. ,The Danish version of the EITQ has acceptable reliability and is ready for use in Denmark. [source]

Sedation failures in children undergoing MRI and CT: is temperament a factor?

PEDIATRIC ANESTHESIA, Issue 3 2000
Terri Voepel-Lewis RN
Summary This study examined the relationship between temperament and sedation failure during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized tomography (CT). One hundred and two children (aged 3,7 years) who underwent MRI or CT with or without sedation were studied. Demographics, sedatives administered, efficacy of sedation, and adverse events were recorded. Parents completed the Behavioural Style Questionnaire for 3,7 years olds during their wait. Eight children underwent MRI successfully without sedation, 83 were successfully sedated, and 11 procedures were aborted. Children whose sedation failed were less adaptable than children whose sedation was successful (P =0.04). Children who underwent MRI without sedation were more persistent than children who were sedated (P =0.05), and more persistent and less active than those whose sedation failed (P =0.02 and 0.03, respectively). The child's underlying temperament may contribute to sedation outcomes during MRI and CT. A presedation assessment of the child's temperament may therefore assist in decisions regarding sedation. [source]