Maternal and contextual influences and the effect of temperament development during infancy on parenting in toddlerhood☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2008.10.007Get rights and content

Abstract

In the current study, latent growth modeling (LGM) was used to: (1) identify the developmental trajectories of infant negative emotions (NE) and regulatory capacity (RC) from 4 to 12 months of age, (2) examine maternal and family factors that may affect NE and RC trajectories, (3) examine transactional associations between developing NE and RC, and (4) examine the effect of infant temperament trajectories on negative parenting when toddlers reached 18 months of age. Mothers from 156 families completed a measure of infant temperament when infants were 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months of age and completed maternal relationship stress, depression, and family demographics measures when infants were 4 months of age. Information regarding negative parenting was collected when toddlers reached 18 months of age. LGM results suggest that maternal relationship stress and depression influence infant NE development, that high NE early in infancy may compromise the development of infant regulation, and that steeper decreases of infant RC contribute the greatest amount of variance to negative parenting in toddlerhood. The implications for models of early emotion regulation and incorporating changes in temperament over time into developmentally sensitive models (e.g., emerging parenting practices and developmental psychopathology) are discussed.

Section snippets

Early temperament development

Conceptualizations of NE generally consist of irritability, fear, sadness, anger, shyness, frustration, and discomfort (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000; Rothbart, 1989). With minor exceptions, the structure of NE (i.e. scales comprising NE) has demonstrated relative constancy across the life span, with measures of NE in infancy, early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence typically including subscales that measure fear, anger, and sadness (Putnam, Ellis, &

Temperament and negative parenting

Studies have found both concurrent and longitudinal relationships between higher levels of aspects of NE and increased negative parenting (e.g., Calkins, 2002; Lee & Bates, 1985; Mertesacker, Bade, Haverkock, & Pauli-Pott, 2004; Rubin, Stewart, & Chen, 1995). A recent meta-analysis of the relationship between NE and (less) supportive parenting identified a small mean effect of .06 (Paulussen-Hoogeboom, Stams, Hermanns, & Peetsma, 2007), suggesting that the relationship between NE and parenting

Direction of temperament-negative parenting effects

To date, research on the direction of effects of temperament-parenting relationships has not been consistent. Some evidence points to reciprocal temperament-parenting relationships, whereas other evidence suggests unidirectional relationships with child temperament affecting subsequent parenting or vice-versa. Although an influential model developed by Belsky (1984) suggested that characteristics of the child were lower in importance than characteristics of the parent in the hierarchy of

Factors influencing temperament and negative parenting

Studies examining associations between temperament and negative parenting need to account for parental and family characteristics that may affect both. For example, maternal depression, which has been associated with increased emotional unavailability and negativity, has been consistently linked with disruptions in parent–child interactions and parenting behaviors beginning in infancy and extending through adolescence (e.g., Cummings & Davies, 1994; Downey & Coyne, 1990; Field et al., 1988;

Hypotheses

The current study builds on recent uses of LGM methodology examining questions regarding temperament development and the effect of temperament development on subsequent outcomes (i.e. Lengua, 2006; Partridge & Lerner, 2007). In addition to examining the developmental trajectories of, and transactional relationships between, infant RC and NE, the current study examines family and maternal factors that may affect temperament development, and how changes in these temperament constructs during

Participants

One hundred fifty-six families from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada with 4-month-old infants agreed to participate. Recruitment occurred via birth announcements located in newspapers and on hospital websites. Primary caregivers, mean age of 30.31 years (S.D. = 4.81), self-identified as primarily Caucasian (92.4%) and came from diverse economic (Family Income M = $61,072; $8000–130,000) and educational backgrounds (years of education, M = 15.17; S.D. = 2.70; 10–25). Approximately equal

Initial LGM analyses

Relative to the linear multiple-domain LGM (χ2[45] = 94.84, p < .01, CFI = 1.00, AGFI = .93, AIC = 4.84, SRMR = .079, and RMSEA = .00), the linear spline multiple-domain LGM, χ2(39) = 61.20, p < .01, CFI = 1.00, AGFI = .93, AIC = −16.80, SRMR = .08, RMSEA = .02, resulted in an improved fit to the data, Δχ2(6) = 33.64, p < .01. The linear spline growth model can be best described as a piecewise linear curve that often resembles a crooked line (Stoolmiller, Duncan, Bank, & Patterson, 1993). This type of growth model is a more

Discussion

Results obtained from the present investigation make a number of important contributions to the existing literature. First, our findings add substantially to the growing body of evidence examining the effect of temperament on parenting practices. In this study, steeper decreases in infant RC from 4 to 12 months of age emerged as the most important predictor of negative parenting when the toddlers were 18 months of age. In other words, those infants who experienced emerging regulatory

References (95)

  • J.L. Anthony et al.

    An affect-based, hierarchical model of temperament and its relations with internalizing symptomatology

    Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

    (2002)
  • D. Arcus et al.

    When baby makes four: Family influences in the stability of behavioral inhibition

  • D.S. Arnold et al.

    The parenting scale: A measure of dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations

    Psychological Assessment

    (1993)
  • D. Baumrind

    Authoritarian vs. authoritative parental control

    Adolescence

    (1968)
  • A.T. Beck et al.

    Manual for the beck depression inventory

    (1996)
  • J. Belsky

    The determinants of parenting: A process model

    Child Development

    (1984)
  • P.M. Bentler

    Comparative fit indexes in structural equation models

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1990)
  • P.M. Bentler

    EQS 6.1 structural equations program manual

    (2004)
  • M. Bornstein et al.

    Child and mother cardiac vagal tone: Continuity, stability, and concordance across the first 5 years

    Developmental Psychology

    (2000)
  • R.H. Bradley et al.

    Socioeconomic status and child development

    Annual Review of Psychology

    (2002)
  • M.W. Browne et al.

    Alternative ways of assessing model fit

  • A.H. Buss et al.

    A temperament theory of personality development

    (1975)
  • B.M. Byrne

    Structural equation modeling with EQS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming

    (2006)
  • B.M. Byrne et al.

    Modeling and testing change: An introduction to the latent growth curve model

    Understanding Statistics

    (2003)
  • S.D. Calkins

    Origins and outcomes of individual differences in emotional regulation

    Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

    (2002)
  • S.D. Calkins et al.

    Temperament in early development

  • J.A. Carranza et al.

    A longitudinal study of temperament in infancy: Stability and convergence of measures

    European Journal of Personality

    (2000)
  • E. Chen et al.

    Socioeconomic status and patterns of parent–adolescent interactions

    Journal of Research on Adolescence

    (2006)
  • E. Cummings et al.

    Maternal depression and child development

    Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

    (1994)
  • P.J. Curran et al.

    The use of latent trajectory models in psychopathology research

    Journal of Abnormal Psychology

    (2003)
  • C. DeVito et al.

    Attachment, parenting, and marital dissatisfaction as predictors of disruptive behavior in preschoolers

    Development and Psychopathology

    (2001)
  • G. Downey et al.

    Children of depressed parents: An integrative review

    Psychological Bulletin

    (1990)
  • T.E. Duncan et al.

    An introduction to latent variable growth curve modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications

    (1999)
  • N. Eisenberg et al.

    The relations of regulation and emotionality to children's externalizing and internalizing problem behavior

    Child Development

    (2001)
  • N. Eisenberg et al.

    The relations of emotionality and regulation to preschools’ social skills and sociometric status

    Child Development

    (1993)
  • N. Eisenberg et al.

    Parental reactions to children's negative emotions: Longitudinal relations to quality of children's social functioning

    Child Development

    (1999)
  • X. Fan et al.

    Power of latent growth modeling for detecting linear growth: Number of measurements and comparison with other analytic approaches

    Journal of Experimental Education

    (2005)
  • R. Feldman et al.

    Toddlers’ self-regulated compliance to mothers, caregivers, and fathers: Implications for theories of socialization

    Developmental Psychology

    (2003)
  • T. Field et al.

    Infants of depressed mothers show “depressed” behavior even with nondepressed adults

    Child Development

    (1988)
  • R.A. Fox et al.

    Maternal factors related to parenting practices, developmental expectations, and perceptions of child behavior problems

    The Journal of Genetic Psychology

    (1995)
  • Gartstein, M.A., Slobodskaya, H.R., Putnam, S.P., Kinsht, I.A. (in press). A Cross Cultural Study of Infant...
  • H.H. Goldsmith et al.

    Temperamental substrates of personality development

  • H.H. Goldsmith et al.

    Contemporary instruments for assessing early temperament by questionnaire and in the laboratory

  • L. Hu et al.

    Evaluating model fit

  • E.M. Ingoldsby et al.

    Neighborhood disadvantage, parent-child conflict, neighborhood peer relationships, and early antisocial behavior problem trajectories

    Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

    (2006)
  • H.A.K. Jacques et al.

    A test of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression in elementary and high school boys and girls

    Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

    (2004)
  • J.M. Jenkins et al.

    The role of the shared family context in differential parenting

    Developmental Psychology

    (2002)

    • Cited by (148)

    • Screen time vs. scream time: Developmental interrelations between young children's screen time, negative affect, and effortful control

      2024, Computers in Human Behavior

    • The socialization of positive emotions: Implications for physical health and psychological adjustment

      2023, Mental Health and Prevention

    • Stability of maternal postnatal bonding between 3 and 6 months: Associations with maternal mental health and infant temperament

      2023, Infant Behavior and Development

    • Postnatal maternal distress, infant subcortical brain macrostructure and emotional regulation

      2023, Psychiatry Research - Neuroimaging

    • Cardiac physiological regulation across early infancy: The roles of infant surgency and parental involvement with mothers and fathers

      2021, Infant Behavior and Development

    • Infant effects on experimenter behavior

      2021, Infant Behavior and Development
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    ☆

    This work was funded by the United States of America National Institute of Mental Health Behavioral Science Track Award for Rapid Transition (R3MH61831A) to the second author, Maria A. Gartstein. We would like to extend our thanks to Sarah Schlect, Amy Crow, Linday Yake, Robin Waits, and Jessica VanVleet whose help was instrumental in completing this project. We also extend our thanks to the many families who participated, making this research possible.

    View full text
    Copyright © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.