Difficult Child Temperament Research Articles

Origins of children's externalizing behavior problems in low-income families: toddlers' willing stance toward their mothers as the missing link.

Although children's active role in socialization has been long acknowledged, relevant research has typically focused on children's difficult temperament or negative behaviors that elicit coercive and adversarial processes, largely overlooking their capacity to act as positive, willing, even enthusiastic, active socialization agents. We studied the willing, receptive stance toward their mothers in a low-income sample of 186 children who were 24 to 44 months old. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a latent construct of willing stance, manifested as children's responsiveness to mothers in naturalistic interactions, responsive imitation in teaching contexts, and committed compliance with maternal prohibitions, all observed in the laboratory. Structural equation modeling analyses confirmed that ecological adversity undermined maternal responsiveness, and responsiveness, in turn, was linked to children's willing stance. A compromised willing stance predicted externalizing behavior problems, assessed 10 months later, and fully mediated the links between maternal responsiveness and those outcomes. Ecological adversity had a direct, unmediated effect on internalizing behavior problems. Considering children's active role as willing, receptive agents capable of embracing parental influence can lead to a more complete understanding of detrimental mechanisms that link ecological adversity with antisocial developmental pathways. It can also inform research on the normative socialization process, consistent with the objectives of developmental psychopathology.

Differential Susceptibility to the Effects of Child Temperament on Maternal Warmth and Responsiveness

ABSTRACT A child's difficult temperament can elicit negative parenting and inhibit positive parenting behavior. However, mothers appear to be differentially susceptible to child temperament. The author examined the differential susceptibility to the effects of a child's temperament on the mother–child interaction style (i.e., maternal warmth and responsiveness) as well as plausible reasons for these differences. With 2,130 mothers of 14-month-old infants (51% male) as subjects, a regression mixture analysis identified three latent classes with varying associations between the child's temperament and mother–child interactions: nonsusceptible class, susceptible–high class, and susceptible–low class. Mother-reported depression was most predictive of class membership. Latent class differences in the maternal self-efficacy, marital conflict, and coparenting alliance were also found. On the other hand, family income, maternal employment, and the child's gender were not significant predictors of class membership when individual and contextual resources were considered. Overall, mothers with abundant individual and family resources (i.e., less depressed, highly self-efficacious, few marital conflicts, and high coparenting alliance with their spouse) showed that their interaction style with a child would vary according to the child's temperament, whereas mothers with slender resources interacted with their children in a less warm and responsive manner, regardless of the child's temperament. The implications of these findings are also discussed.

Mothers and Infants Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence Compensate

Reasons for the developmental variability in children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are unclear and under studied. This article presents exploratory findings on (a) the potential impact of IPV on mother-child relationships and child development and (b) the association between these maternal-child relationship impacts and child development. The fit of findings with compensatory, spillover, and compartmentalization hypotheses was explored. Participants were 49 mothers and 51 children younger than 3 years of age affected by IPV. Data were collected on maternal-child interactions, child development, social support, difficult life circumstances, family functioning, child temperament, and parental depression. The findings suggested developmental impacts on children in the sample, along with children's high sensitivity and responsiveness to their caregivers. Although some spillover effects were observed, the predominant observation was of mothers and infants compensating for exposure to IPV in their interactions.

Children of Mentally Ill Parents Participating in Preventive Support Groups: Parental Diagnoses and Child Risk

In the Netherlands, preventive support groups are offered to children of mentally ill parents. Given the variety of parental diagnoses it might be questionable if offering a standardized program for all these children is the most effective response. While no overall knowledge exists about the type of parental disorder and varying risk levels and support needs among the participating children, we examined whether there are differences between these children that are related to their parents’ diagnoses. With questionnaires we assessed risk factors in 122 mentally ill parents and their children: high parental illness severity, low perceived parental competence, parent–child interaction problems, poor family functioning, difficult child temperament, and low child competence. We also assessed the children’s psychosocial problems and negative cognitions about their parent’s illness. Results showed that most parents had co-morbidity (multiple diagnoses) and/or personality disorders. Children of parents with either of these conditions were more likely to be exposed to the risk factors: high parental illness severity, low perceived parental competence, problematic parent–child interaction, and low perceived child competence, compared to children of parents without these conditions. They were also faced with more risk factors and had more psychosocial problems and negative cognitions. From these results we may conclude that children of parents with co-morbidity and/or personality disorders require more extensive support than children of parents without these conditions. We suggest strengthening the children’s competence and involving parents as important focuses of preventive interventions for children at high risk. Longitudinal studies should test these assumptions.

Difficult temperament moderates links between maternal responsiveness and children’s compliance and behavior problems in low‐income families

Research has shown that interactions between young children's temperament and the quality of care they receive predict the emergence of positive and negative socioemotional developmental outcomes. This multimethod study addresses such interactions, using observed and mother-rated measures of difficult temperament, children's committed, self-regulated compliance and externalizing problems, and mothers' responsiveness in a low-income sample. In 186 thirty-month-old children, difficult temperament was observed in the laboratory (as poor effortful control and high anger proneness), and rated by mothers. Mothers' responsiveness was observed in lengthy naturalistic interactions at 30 and 33 months. At 40 months, children's committed compliance and externalizing behavior problems were assessed using observations and several well-established maternal report instruments. Parallel significant interactions between child difficult temperament and maternal responsiveness were found across both observed and mother-rated measures of temperament. For difficult children, responsiveness had a significant effect such that those children were more compliant and had fewer externalizing problems when they received responsive care, but were less compliant and had more behavior problems when they received unresponsive care. For children with easy temperaments, maternal responsiveness and developmental outcomes were unrelated. All significant interactions reflected the diathesis-stress model. There was no evidence of differential susceptibility, perhaps due to the pervasive stress present in the ecology of the studied families. Those findings add to the growing body of evidence that for temperamentally difficult children, unresponsive parenting exacerbates risks for behavior problems, but responsive parenting can effectively buffer risks conferred by temperament.

Pathways and processes of risk in associations among maternal antisocial personality symptoms, interparental aggression, and preschooler's psychopathology

Two studies examined the nature and processes underlying the joint role of interparental aggression and maternal antisocial personality as predictors of children's disruptive behavior problems. Participants for both studies included a high-risk sample of 201 mothers and their 2-year-old children in a longitudinal, multimethod design. Addressing the form of the interplay between interparental aggression and maternal antisocial personality as risk factors for concurrent and prospective levels of child disruptive problems, the Study 1 findings indicated that maternal antisocial personality was a predictor of the initial levels of preschooler's disruptive problems independent of the effects of interparental violence, comorbid forms of maternal psychopathology, and socioeconomic factors. In attesting to the salience of interparental aggression in the lives of young children, latent difference score analyses further revealed that interparental aggression mediated the link between maternal antisocial personality and subsequent changes in child disruptive problems over a 1-year period. To identify the family mechanisms that account for the two forms of intergenerational transmission of disruptive problems identified in Study 1, Study 2 explored the role of children's difficult temperament, emotional reactivity to interparental conflict, adrenocortical reactivity in a challenging parent-child task, and experiences with maternal parenting as mediating processes. Analyses identified child emotional reactivity to conflict and maternal unresponsiveness as mediators in pathways between interparental aggression and preschooler's disruptive problems. The findings further supported the role of blunted adrenocortical reactivity as an allostatic mediator of the associations between parental unresponsiveness and child disruptive problems.

Father involvement and peer play competence in preschoolers: The moderating effect of the child's difficult temperament

This article focuses on the association between the relative involvement of the father with preschool children in two-parent families, individual characteristics of children (age, gender, and difficult temperament) and the children's peer play competence. Relative involvement of the father was assessed using The Parental Involvement: Care and Socialization Questionnaire composed of five subscales: Direct Care, Indirect Care, Teaching/Discipline, Play and Leisure Outdoors. Interactive peer play competence was assessed using the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS), with three subscales: Play Interaction, Play Disruption and Play Disconnection. Parental assessment of the child's temperament was made using the preschool version of the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire's (ICQ) subscale of Difficult Temperament. Multiple regression ordinary least squares (OLS) models showed that boys and children with difficult temperament tend to show more play disruption and less play interaction, and also that difficult temperament was a moderator of the association between the relative father involvement in Direct Care, Play and Teaching/Discipline activities and individual differences in peer play Disruption and Interaction. Higher levels of relative father involvement in Direct Care and Play with temperamentally difficult children were associated with more disruptive play with peers, and higher levels of relative father involvement in Teaching/Discipline with difficult children was associated with more play Interaction. The discussion elaborates on the differential styles of Interaction by fathers and mothers with temperamentally difficult children.

Parental agreement of reporting parent to child aggression using the Conflict Tactics Scales

ObjectivesThis study examined mothers’ and fathers’ reporting congruency using the Parent–Child Conflict Tactics Scales. We asked if the mother's report of the father's parenting aggression was consistent with the father's self-report of parenting aggression and if the father's report of the mother's parenting aggression was consistent with the mother's self- report of those same behaviors. We assessed moderators of parental reporting congruency: severity of the aggression, interparental conflict, child temperament, and child gender. MethodsParticipants were from the Child Development Project, a longitudinal study beginning when children were in kindergarten. The analyses herein included 163 children for whom 2 parents provided data about their own and their spouse or partner's behavior toward the child. Most parents (87%) were married. Mothers and fathers independently completed the Parent–Child Conflict Tactics Scale, both with respect to their own behavior toward the child and with respect to their partner's behavior toward the child. Mothers completed the retrospective Infant Characteristics Questionnaire to assess child temperament. Mothers and fathers completed measures of interparental conflict. ResultsBoth fathers and mothers self-reported more frequently engaging in each behavior than the other parent reported they did. Parents were more congruent on items assessing harsher parenting behavior. Furthermore, there was more agreement between parents regarding fathers’ behavior than mothers’ behavior. Analyses of interparental conflict, child difficult temperament, and child gender as moderators yielded findings suggesting that mothers’ and fathers’ reports of their own and their spouses’ harsh parenting behaviors were more concordant in couples with low levels of conflict, for children with easy temperaments, and for boys versus girls. ConclusionsPrior studies indicate only a moderate level of agreement in couples’ reports of violence between intimate partners and suggest that perpetrators tend to underreport their use of aggression. The results of this study suggest that parents may be more consistent in their reports of parent to child violence using the Parent–Child Conflict Tactics Scales than they are when reporting intimate partner violence. The results suggest that parental reports of their spouse's parent to child aggression are reliable.

Infant gender and postpartum sadness in the light of region of birth and some other factors: a contribution to the knowledge of postpartum depression

The purpose of this paper is to analyse postpartum depressive symptoms as related to baby gender, maternal region of birth, stress, perception of child difficult temperament and some demographic factors. The setting was 36 Swedish child health centres. Mothers of 1,848 19-month-old children completed a questionnaire, including an item about recall of postpartum sadness. A subsample of 360 answered the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Overall, significantly more mothers of boys than of girls recalled postpartum sadness. The same was found in mothers born in Sweden and in other regions, except for the Middle East (no significant result). Among those born in Sweden and in other regions, more mothers of boys than of girls scored ≥12 on the EPDS, except for Middle East mothers with the opposite pattern (no significant finding). More mothers of "difficult" boys than of "difficult" girls recalled postpartum sadness. Our findings are tentative but may inspire future research. Immigrant mothers in Sweden seem rather like the majority population, possibly with the exception of Middle East mothers. The significance of parents' knowledge of their child's gender in advance is an important area for research. Future parents could benefit from discussing gender expectations with a nurse or other professional.

The impact of emotional and physical violence during pregnancy on maternal and child health at one year post-partum

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is increasingly recognized as having a negative impact on both the mother and her unborn child. The current study extends previous work to examine the impact of both physical and emotional IPV separately and cumulatively on the mother and her child. Specifically, we used the Fragile Families dataset (N = 3961) to determine the effect of emotional and physical IPV on women and children at one year postpartum. Analyses revealed that both physical and emotional victimization have independent and negative impacts on mothers and their children. Emotional victimization was associated with poorer overall health for the mother, elevated maternal depression, poorer overall health for the child, and difficult child temperament. Experiencing a combination of physical and emotional victimization resulted in more problematic outcomes. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Rearing Difficult Children: Parents' Personality and Children's Proneness to Anger as Predictors of Future Parenting

SYNOPSIS Objective . This multimethod study of 102 mothers, fathers, and children examined children's difficult temperament as a moderator of the links between parental personality and future parenting. Design . Parents described themselves on the Big Five traits and on optimism. Children's difficult temperament was observed at 25 and 38 months in paradigms that assessed proneness to anger. Each parent's responsive, affectively positive parenting was observed in lengthy naturalistic interactions at 67 months. Results . Regardless of child temperament, for mothers, low neuroticism, and for fathers, high extraversion, predicted more positive parenting. For difficult, anger-prone children, mothers' low and high optimism and fathers' low and high openness were associated, respectively, with less or more positive parenting. Conclusions . Challenges resulting from children's difficult temperaments appear to amplify links between parental personality traits and parenting.

Characteristics of HIV-Infected Mothers Associated With Increased Risk of Poor Mother-Infant Interactions and Infant Outcomes

IntroductionThe current study aimed to investigate the relationship between individual and familial characteristics of HIV-infected mothers and their psychological health as it relates to parenting as well as their parenting beliefs/abilities. MethodA descriptive correlational design was used. Seventeen HIV-infected mothers and their infants were recruited from a university clinic in Alabama. Assessments were gathered at the infant's pediatric clinic appointments (approximately 6 weeks after delivery) and included a demographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Maternal Confidence Questionnaire, the Parenting Stress Index–Short Form, and the Questionnaire About Physical Contact. ResultsDysfunctional parent-child interactions significantly correlated with maternal confidence, parent stress, and overall feeling about physical contact. Difficult child temperament correlated with overall and current feelings of physical contact and parent stress. Significant correlations were found between parent distress, parent stress, and maternal depression. DiscussionBeyond the need to assist HIV-infected mothers with stress and depression, an intervention is needed to facilitate optimal parent-child interactions and improve both child psychosocial and cognitive outcomes.

Parental depression and child temperament: Assessing child to parent effects in a longitudinal population study

Current research supports a link between maternal depression and difficult child temperament. The direction of effect is often assumed to be from parent to child, but few studies have addressed child to parent effects. In a large cohort study, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (N=14663), we aimed to further existing knowledge by investigating the relationship between maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and child temperament, and determining the direction of any effects found. Data was collected at 2 time-points (when the children were 6 and 24 months old), using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Mood and Intensity subscales of the Carey Temperament Scales. Significant parent to child effects were seen, with maternal and paternal depressive symptoms at Time 1 leading to more difficult temperament at Time 2. Father to child effects were significant only in male children. Little evidence was found for child to parent effects.

Narrative structure and emotional references in parent–child reminiscing: associations with child gender, temperament, and the quality of parent–child interactions

The present research examined child gender, temperament, and the quality of parent–child interactions as predictors of narrative style and references to emotion during mother–child and father–child reminiscing. Although models predicting parents' narrative styles were non‐significant, results revealed significant interactions between parental hostility/intrusiveness during an interaction task and difficult child temperament. For mothers, greater hostility/intrusiveness was associated with fewer emotional references, but only when perceived difficult temperament was high. For fathers, greater hostility/intrusiveness was associated with more emotional references, but only when perceived difficult temperament was high. Additionally, greater paternal supportive guidance was associated with more references to positive emotions for fathers. No child gender effects were found to be significant.

Disregard for rules: the early development and predictors of a specific dimension of disruptive behavior disorders

Disregard for rules, an important dimension of oppositional defiant and conduct disorders, is frequent during early childhood, but the development of its chronic form has not been studied during this key socialization period. This study aimed to describe the developmental trajectories of disregard for rules during early childhood and identify prenatal and postnatal predictors for a high trajectory. Participants were involved in a longitudinal study of a birth cohort followed yearly from 5 to 74 months of age (N = 1,942). Prenatal and postnatal predictors were measured by parental report at the beginning of the study, and parents reported child disregard for rules at five time points from 29 to 74 months of age. Four groups of children followed distinct and stable trajectories of mother-rated disregard for rules: Very Low (approximately 9.1%), Low (56.9%), Moderate (29.7%) and Chronic (4.3%). As expected, male sex was a significant predictor of the chronic trajectory (OR = 1.76, CI = 1.09-2.83). Mothers' history of antisocial behavior (OR = 1.72, CI = 1.02-2.91), and postnatal depressive symptoms experienced by the mother (OR = 1.71, CI = 1.03-2.84) and the father (OR = 2.02, CI = 1.10-3.71) were also important independent predictors. However, contrary to expectations, children's difficult temperament and parenting at 5 months did not predict chronic disregard for rules beyond other risk factors. High disregard for rules is fairly stable during early childhood and is associated with risk factors identifiable before and shortly after birth which may be used for targeted prevention.

Distinguishing Maltreating versus Nonmaltreating At-Risk Families: Implications for Foster Care and Early Childhood Education Interventions

Discriminant function (DF) analysis was used to distinguish 92 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse maltreating versus nonmaltreating families on indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting stress. Families included those with substantiated reports of child maltreatment ( n = 23), plus Head Start families ( n = 36), and child care families ( n = 33) without reports of maltreatment. The significant SES distinguishers were poverty and parental education and employment. The significant parenting stress distinguishers were parental self-reports of a dysfunctional parent–child relationship and difficult child temperament. Maltreating and Head Start families were similar in terms of poverty, but only the maltreating families had clinical levels of parenting stress. Implications for family therapy and early childhood education interventions are discussed.

Resilience Among Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: The Role of Risk and Protective Factors

Individual and family characteristics that predict resilience among children exposed to domestic violence (DV) were examined. Mother-child dyads (n = 190) were assessed when the children were 2, 3, and 4 years of age. DV-exposed children were 3.7 times more likely than nonexposed children to develop internalizing or externalizing problems. However, 54% of DV-exposed children maintained positive adaptation and were characterized by easy temperament (odds ratio [OR] = .39, d = .52) and nondepressed mothers (OR = 1.14, d = .07), as compared to their nonresilient counterparts. Chronic DV was associated with maternal depression, difficult child temperament, and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. Results underscore heterogeneous outcomes among DV-exposed children and the influence of individual and family characteristics on children's adaptation.

Difficult Temperament, Breastfeeding, and Their Mutual Prospective Effects: The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study

(1) To examine the extent to which difficult temperament and breastfeeding are associated at child age 6 and 18 months. (2) To examine longitudinally whether breastfeeding has an influence on temperament development or whether difficult temperament has an influence on continued breastfeeding. This prospective study is part of the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study, which targets all women giving birth in Norway; the present sample comprises 30,466 children. Mothers reported on child difficult temperament at child age 6 and 18 months and on breastfeeding from 0 to 6 months and from 6 to 12-14 months. Prospective associations between breastfeeding and difficult temperament were examined using structural equation modeling, with comparison of cross-lagged pathways. All analyses were adjusted for background variables that are relevant for breastfeeding. At 6 months, children with more difficult temperament were significantly less likely to have been "fully" breastfed (exclusively and predominantly breastfed) for the recommended period of 6 months (unadjusted point-biserial correlation r pb = -.15; adjusted r pb = -.11). At 12 to 14 months, there was no longer an association between difficult temperament and (continued) breastfeeding after adjusting for background variables, temperament, and breastfeeding at 6 months. The cross-lagged analyses of the longitudinal pathways yielded negligible effects of difficult temperament on later breastfeeding and of breastfeeding on later temperament. Difficult temperament and reduced breastfeeding seem to be associated only during the first half-year of the child's life. After that, we found no evidence of codevelopment between difficult temperament and breastfeeding.

The additive and interactive effects of parenting style and temperament in obese youth seeking treatment

To examine maternal parenting behaviors, child temperament and their potential interactions in families of obese children and demographically similar families of nonoverweight children. A total of 77 obese youth (M body mass index (BMI) z-score values, zBMI=2.4; ages 8-16, 59% female, 50% African American) and their parents were recruited from a pediatric weight management clinic and compared to 69 families of nonoverweight youth (M zBMI=-0.03). Comparison youth were classmates of each obese participant matched on gender, race and age. Maternal report of child temperament, parenting style and anthropometric assessments were obtained. Compared to nonoverweight youth, mothers of obese youth described their child as having a more difficult temperament and their parenting style as lower in behavioral control. A logistic regression model indicated that difficult temperament, lower behavioral control and the interaction of low maternal warmth and difficult child temperament were associated with increased odds of a child being classified as obese. Treatment-seeking obese youth and their parents are characterized by different parent and child factors when compared to nonoverweight comparison families. These findings direct investigators to test more complex models of the relation between parent and child characteristics and their mutual role in the weight-related behavior change process.

Longitudinal Study of Preschool Sleep Disturbance

To determine if maladaptive parental behaviors (at age 29-41 months) and mother/child psychological characteristics predict future sleep disturbances in 50-month-old to 6-year-old preschoolers, while controlling for early (age 5-17 months) sleep and sociodemographic factors. Randomized survey; children assessed annually from 5 months to 6 years of age. Participants' homes. Representative sample of 987 children born in the province of Quebec, Canada, in 1997-1998. Questionnaires and interview, including responses from 7 points for 3 key dependent measures: bad dreams (BD), total sleep time (TST) less than 10 hours/night, and sleep-onset latency (SOL) of 15 minutes or more. Early (age 5-17 months) sleep disturbances predicted maladaptive parental behaviors (eg, mother present at sleep onset, giving food/drink after child awakens) at ages 29 and 41 months. Some parental behaviors in turn predicted future BD, TST less than 10 hours/night, and SOL of 15 minutes or more. However, most relationships did not remain significant in adjusted models that controlled for early sleep problems. Bad dreams were predicted by psychological variables (child's anxiety, mother's feeling of efficacy), as was TST (child's difficult temperament and anxiety, mother's depressive symptoms). However, SOL of 15 minutes or more was predicted by several parental behaviors even in adjusted models; cosleeping after awakenings was a risk factor while mother's presence at sleep onset was a protective factor. Findings support the hypothesis that maladaptive parental behaviors develop in reaction to preexisting sleep difficulties. Further, early sleep difficulties are more predictive than parental behaviors in explaining BD and foreshortened TST beginning at age 50 months. Results are interpreted in light of early emotive/physiological self-regulation problems.