Samuel P. Putnam

Development of short and very short forms of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire.

Using data from 468 parents and taking into account internal consistency, breadth of item content, within-scale factor analysis, and patterns of missing data, we developed short (94 items, 15 scales) and very short (36 items, 3 broad scales) forms of the Childrens Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Hershey, 1994; Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001), a well-established parent-report measure of temperament for children aged 3 to 8 years. We subsequently evaluated the forms with data from 1,189 participants. In mid/high-income and White samples, the CBQ short and very short forms demonstrated both satisfactory internal consistency and criterion validity, and exhibited longitudinal stability and cross-informant agreement comparable to that of the standard CBQ. Internal consistency was somewhat lower among African American and low-income samples for some scales. Very short form scales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency for all samples, and confirmatory factor analyses indicated marginal fit of the very short form items to a three-factor model.

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

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.

Etiology of preschool behavior problems: Contributions of temperament attributes in early childhood†

The present study was conducted to examine the contributions of early appearing temperament attributes to toddler and preschool-age behavior problems. High levels of negative emotionality and low levels of effortful control were linked to both externalizing and internalizing difficulties. All fine-grained dimensions of negative affect were concurrently associated with internalizing problems whereas relations between components of negative affect and externalizing were observed only for frustration, sadness, and low falling reactivity. Higher surgency was associated with increased risk for externalizing behaviors whereas low surgency increased the likelihood of internalizing problems. Trait-by-trait moderation occurred, such that negative emotionality was most closely related to behavior problems when orienting/regulatory capacity or effortful control was low or when infant surgency was high. Results of this study have implications for theory linking temperament and psychopathology, and clinical applications utilizing temperament assessment to prevent behavior problems.

Exuberant and inhibited toddlers: Stability of temperament and risk for problem behavior

Temperament, effortful control, and problem behaviors at 4.5 years were assessed in 72 children classified as exuberant, inhibited, and low reactive as 2-year-olds. Exuberant toddlers were more positive, socially responsive to novel persons, less shy, and rated as having more problem behaviors, including externalizing and internalizing behaviors, than other children as preschoolers. Two forms of effortful control, the ability to delay a response and the ability to produce a subdominant response, were associated with fewer externalizing behaviors, whereas expressing more negative affect (relative to positive/neutral affect) when disappointed was related to more internalizing behaviors. Interaction effects implicated high levels of unregulated emotion during disappointment as a risk factor for problem behaviors in exuberant children.

Development and assessment of short and very short forms of the infant behavior questionnaire-revised.

Using data from parents of 761 infants from 6 independent samples, short (91 items, 14 scales) and very short (37 items, 3 broad scales) forms of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire–Revised (IBQ–R), a well-established caregiver report measure of temperament for infants aged 3 to 12 months, were developed. The forms were subsequently evaluated with data from 1,619 participants from 11 samples. Over 90% of Cronbachs alphas and part–whole correlations calculated for the short and very short form scales were greater than.70. Interparent agreement was nearly identical to that obtained with standard IBQ–R scales, averaging.41 and ranging from.06 to.76. Longitudinal stability over multiple time spans, and estimated retest reliability of the short form scales, were highly similar to those of standard forms, with estimated retest reliability averaging.72 and ranging from.54 to.93. Convergent and predictive validity of select short form scales were comparable to, but slightly lower, than those observed for standard IBQ–R scales. Recommendations for the use of the standard, short, and very short scales are discussed.

Mother-Child Coregulation During Delay of Gratification at 30 Months

Fifty-eight 30-month-old children and their mothers were observed during a task in which the child was asked to refrain from touching an attractive toy. Child and maternal regulatory strategies were independently coded in 5-sec intervals. Consistent with past research, the ability to refrain from touching the toy was associated with less time orienting to the forbidden object and more time focusing on other stimuli. Mothers of children who refrained from touching the toy were more likely to use distraction as a technique to assist in their childrens regulation than were mothers of touchers, whereas mothers of children who transgressed used more nondistracting strategies than did mothers of nontouchers. Analysis of contingent behaviors suggested that mothers and children effectively coregulated behavior during this challenging situation, as children and mothers followed one anothers lead in the allocation of attention away from the toy. These findings indicate the benefits of proactive, rather than reactive, parental strategies for assisting child delay of gratification.

Emerging effortful control in toddlerhood: The role of infant orienting/regulation, maternal effortful control, and maternal time spent in caregiving activities

Latent growth modeling (LGM) was used to examine the contribution of changes in infant orienting/regulation (O/R) to the emergence of toddler effortful control (EC), the contributions of maternal EC to the development of infant O/R and the emergence of toddler EC, the influence of maternal time spent in caregiving activities on toddler EC and the slope of infant O/R, and the contribution of maternal EC to subsequent maternal time spent in caregiving activities. Mothers from 158 families completed a self-report measure of EC when their infants were 4 months of age, a measure of infant O/R when their infants were 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months of age, and a measure of toddler EC when their children reached 18 months of age. Information concerning maternal time spent in various interactive caregiving activities was collected when infants were 6 months old. Results indicated higher maternal EC predicted interindividual differences in the intercept (i.e., higher intercepts), but not slope, of infant O/R and that higher maternal EC, higher infant O/R intercept, and higher infant O/R slope contributed to higher toddler EC. Furthermore, higher maternal EC predicted greater maternal time spent in interactive caregiving activities with their infants and greater maternal time in interactive caregiving with infants also contributed to higher toddler EC after controlling for maternal EC. These findings contribute to the understanding of the influence of maternal EC, directly and through caregiving, on toddler EC. Additional implications as they are related to early developing regulatory aspects of temperament are discussed.

Development of approach and inhibition in the first year: parallel findings from motor behavior, temperament ratings and directional cardiac response

A group of 139 infants was observed at 6 and 12 months. Approach and inhibition were measured via latencies to touch lowand high-intensity objects, directional cardiac response to low- and high-intensity sounds and maternal ratings of positive and fearful emotionality. Inhibition showed considerable increases in all three domains from 6 to 12 months. Also reflecting increases in inhibitory processes, correlations between individual infants’ responses to low- and high-intensity sounds were significantly smaller at 12 than at 6 months. Limited cross-domain validity was obtained linking large cardiac decelerations, low latencies to reach for toys and high ratings of positive emotionality. These findings are consistent with previous reports documenting relatively greater gains in inhibition than approach during the second half of the first year. Modest cross-domain consistency indicates separate mechanisms may moderate approach and inhibition in the three different realms.

Studying cross-cultural differences in temperament in the first year of life: United States and Italy

An Italian translation of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) was developed and evaluated with 110 infants, demonstrating satisfactory internal consistency, discriminant validity, and construct validity in the form of gender and age differences, as well as factorial integrity. Cross-cultural differences were subsequently evaluated for matched samples of Italian and United States (US) (N = 110) 3—12-month-olds. Across infancy, parents of US infants reported higher levels of activity, high and low intensity pleasure, and vocal reactivity, whereas Italian infants, particularly males, were rated higher on cuddliness. In early infancy only, US infants were viewed as higher on high intensity pleasure and perceptual sensitivity.

Cross-cultural temperamental differences in infants, children, and adults in the United States of America and Finland.

Cross-cultural differences in temperament were investigated between infants (n = 131, 84 Finns), children (n = 653, 427 Finns), and adults (n = 759, 538 Finns) from the United States of America and Finland. Participants from both cultures completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, Childhood Behavior Questionnaire and the Adult Temperament Questionnaire. Across all ages, Americans received higher ratings on temperamental fearfulness than Finnish individuals, and also demonstrated higher levels of other negative affects at several time points. During infancy and adulthood, Finns tended to score higher on positive affect and elements of temperamental effortful control. Gender differences consistent with prior studies emerged cross-culturally, and were found to be more pronounced in the US during childhood and in Finland during adulthood.