DEVELOPING PERCEPTIONS OF TEMPERAMENT AND THEIR CHILDREN TO MOTHER AND INFANT BEHAVIOR |
| |
Authors: | Charles H. Zeanah, Marcia A. Keener,&dagger Thomas F. Anders |
| |
Affiliation: | Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Brown University Program in Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island.;Division of Child Psychiatry and Child Development, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, U.S.A. |
| |
Abstract: | Controversies about temperamental assessments raise questions about whether questionnaires, which assess parental perceptions of temperament, validly measure within-child characteristics. Thirty-eight couples were recruited from childbirth classes for a short-term longitudinal study. Mother's perceptions of activity, rhythmicity and mood were moderately stable from late pregnancy to 6 mth postnatally. Only father's perceptions of activity were stable during this time. Infants rated by parents as difficult on the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire at 6 mth were rated by observers as less responsive while being fed by their mothers. Results are discussed in the context of influences on parental perceptions of temperament. |
| |
Keywords: | Temperament labor expectations infant feedings infant difficulty |
|
|