Abstract
Background: Temperament involves individual variations in behavioural tendencies of emotional responses and reactions to stimuli after birth. Because ‘foetal programming' is a strong hypothesis in developing temperament, prenatal and intrapartum factors may be significant determinants of infant temperament. This systematic literature review aims to elucidate the evidence of prenatal and intrapartum predictors, including genetic, biological, environmental, socio-demographic, psychological, and obstetric factors of parents and their child.Methods: Relevant articles were searched using MEDLINE, PubMed, and SCOPUS. The inclusion criteria were (a) original research article, (b) written in English, (c) assessed the temperament of infants 12 months old or younger as an outcome variable, and (d) investigated prenatal and intrapartum factorial variables of infant temperament. Following the PRISMA guideline, the articles found in the three databases were screened and selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria before the final review.Results: Finally, 35 articles were reviewed. This systematic review identified a variety of prenatal and intrapartum factors that were significantly associated with infant temperament: (1) genetic and biological factors: certain genotypes, maternal cortisol and ACTH, and CRHs, (2) environmental factors: substance use such as tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs, (3) socio-demographic factor: lower-income, (4) psychological factors: depression or anxiety, eating disorders, personality types of mothers, and domestic violence, and (5) obstetric factors: foetal growth (birth weight), hypertension in mothers, nausea (emesis), and preterm birth.Conclusion: The findings support gene-environment interaction and biological mechanisms for developing infant temperament, suggesting the importance of ensuring a safe and comfortable environment for pregnant mothers, unborn infants, and families during pregnancy and delivery.
Highlights
In psychiatry, temperament involves individual variations in behavioural tendencies of emotional responses and reactions to stimuli after birth [1]
Nineteen papers (3.4%) were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria: (a) 13 studies observed the temperament of infants older than 12 months of age, (b) two studies were identified as literature reviews, (c) four studies assessed infants’ neuro-motor development but not temperament, and (d) two articles referred to the same study as one of the included articles and one did not assess predictors of a child’s temperament
Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 summarise the final list of articles and quality assessment, respectively
Summary
Temperament involves individual variations in behavioural tendencies of emotional responses and reactions to stimuli after birth [1]. The temperament is conceptualised as ‘the stylistic component of behaviour’ [2] showing nine behavioural styles (e.g., activity and regularity). Rothbart defined temperament as ‘relatively stable, primarily biologically based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation’ [4]. These researchers indicated that temperament developed before higher cognitive and social aspects of personality, and labelled three major dimensions of temperament: surgency/extraversion, negative affect, and effortful control [5]. Temperament involves individual variations in behavioural tendencies of emotional responses and reactions to stimuli after birth. This systematic literature review aims to elucidate the evidence of prenatal and intrapartum predictors, including genetic, biological, environmental, socio-demographic, psychological, and obstetric factors of parents and their child
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