The structure and stability of temperament from infancy to toddlerhood: A one-year prospective study

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Abstract

This study investigated the factor structure and longitudinal stability of temperament in a multi-informant (i.e., as reported by mothers and fathers), one-year prospective study from infancy (8–13 months) to toddlerhood (20–25 months). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) replicate and extend earlier studies; in that evidence was found for a three-factor structure for both infant and toddler temperament, consisting of Surgency/Extraversion, Negative Affectivity and Effortful Control. There were, especially in toddlerhood, few differences between mother and father reports in average scores on the three temperament factors, which were in part related to differences in parental involvement between mothers and fathers. In addition, there were few differences between average scores for boys and girls on these temperament factors, with the exception that both mothers and fathers rated girls higher on Effortful Control, and fathers rated boys higher on Extraversion/Surgency, especially in toddlerhood. Finally, results showed that the three factors showed high relative, absolute, and structural stability over a one-year period. The implications of these findings for contemporary temperament research are discussed.

Highlights

► CFA showed a three-factor structure for both infant and toddler temperament. ► Congruence between mother and father report is related to parental involvement. ► Girls were rated higher on Effortful control, and boys higher on Extraversion. ► The three temperament factors showed stability over a one-year period.

Section snippets

The higher order factor structure of infant and toddler temperament

Rothbart and Bates (2006, p. 100; italics added) define temperament as “constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, in the domains of affect, activity and attention”. Reactivity concerns responses to change in the external and internal environment, includes a broad range of reactions (e.g., negative affect, fear, approach, motor activity and cardiac activity) and is thought to be present at birth, thus reflecting a relatively stable characteristic of the

Longitudinal stability

Rothbart, 1989, Rothbart, 1994 has suggested that the neural, motor, and cognitive factors underlying reactivity and regulation are not fully developed at birth, and that maturation leads to changes in the expression of temperament dimensions. The most profound changes during early development are related to dimensions assessing attentional and self-regulatory aspects of child functioning. Effortful Control is hypothesized to emerge around the end of the first year of life, and as its

The present study

Given the limitations of existing research, the first aim of this study is to replicate, using CFA, the three-factor structure of infant and toddler temperament as assessed by the IBQ-R and ECBQ in a two-wave study of Belgian infants, based on both mother- and father-reported temperament (N = 121). Because no other study compared the factor structure of mothers and fathers, we investigate the factor invariance of the IBQ-R and ECBQ in both mothers and fathers by means of multi-group CFA (MGA). In

Participants and procedures

Participants were recruited by undergraduate students at a large Belgian University situated in the Flemish part of the country in return for credits in a course on research interviewing. Prior to contacting potential participants, students followed a 2-h session in which the principles of research interviewing, the study itself and its inclusion criteria were explained. First-time parents of a biological child between the ages of 8 and 13 months old were eligible for the study if they were

Single group analysis

Infant temperament. The hierarchical three-factor model (Model 3) had the best fit (see Table 4) in terms of RMSEA, CFI and SRMR which suggested an acceptable to good fit. Also, the AIC statistic was lowest for Model 3 compared to the other two models, so this model was further evaluated using MGA.

Toddler temperament. As with infant temperament, the hierarchical three-factor model (Model 3) provided the best fit (see Table 5), with RMSEA, CFI and SRMR suggesting an acceptable to good fit.

Gender differences

Child gender. As Table 6 indicates, for father reports in infancy, there were no gender differences with regard to the three temperament factors. However, when considering mother reports in infancy, there was a significant difference between girls and boys on Orienting/Regulating, with girls receiving higher scores (M = 4.82, SD = 0.66 and M = 4.56, SD = 0.58, respectively; t(138) = 2.43, p < .05). Yet, for both mother and father reports in toddlerhood, the difference between boys and girls on Effortful

Relative stability

Homotypic continuity. For mother data, as can be seen on the diagonal in Table 8, significant cross-age correlations for Extraversion (r = .38, p < .01) and Effortful Control (r = .35, p < .01) were found. There was a clear trend for a positive correlation for Negative Affectivity, but this trend did not reach significance (r = .20, p = .12). Correlations with father data were in the same direction. However, in fathers (see Table 8), the correlation for Negative Affectivity was significant (r = .35, p < .01),

Discussion and conclusions

This study evaluated the factor structure and longitudinal stability of temperament from infancy to toddlerhood as perceived by community mothers and fathers using the IBQ-R (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) and ECBQ (Putnam et al., 2006).

The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the current findings clearly replicate earlier findings (e.g., Gartstein et al., 2005, Gartstein and Rothbart, 2003, Putnam et al., 2006) that three higher order factors underlie infant temperament,

Implications for future research

Future research should investigate temperament in even younger infants than those infants who participated in this study, as it is possible that in younger infants the early developing Effortful Control factor is not yet a distinct factor as attentional processes only develop strongly toward the end of the first year. However, Gartstein and Rothbart (2003) found that even in infants as young as 3 months old an Orienting/Regulating factor could be identified, and that the levels of Cuddliness,

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