TY - JOUR
T1 - More Than Meets the Eye
T2 - Parental and Infant Contributors to Maternal and Paternal Reports of Early Infant Difficultness
AU - Atella, Lara D.
AU - DiPietro, Janet A.
AU - Smith, Barbara A.
AU - St James-Roberts, Ian
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by funding from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA (R40 MC 00181), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD27592) awarded to the second author. We thank the generous and diligent participation of our study families.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2003, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2003/11/1
Y1 - 2003/11/1
N2 - Objectives. This study examined correspondences among maternal and paternal ratings of infant temperament, parental psychological functioning, and infant behavior. Design. Participants included 120 families. When infants were 6 weeks old, mothers and fathers completed the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ); reported on their own levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and parenting stress; and completed a 3-day diary of their infants' behavior. Infant irritability was assessed in a laboratory situation. Results. Fathers rated their infants' temperament somewhat more negatively, but there was significant correspondence between maternal and paternal ratings on the temperament factors of fussiness, unadaptability, dullness, and a difficultness composite. Higher infant difficultness was consistently associated with parenting stress. Infant behavioral fussiness, as measured by 3-day diaries, was significantly correlated with temperament ratings by both parents and with irritability observed in the laboratory setting. Maternal psychological distress was weakly predictive of ratings of infant difficultness; infant behaviors (diary and laboratory-based irritability) accounted for 15 to 17% of the variance. Paternal psychological distress and infant behaviors contributed equally to difficultness ratings. Conclusions. Mothers and fathers are influenced by somewhat different factors in perceiving their babies' temperament, but both maternal and paternal reports have a basis in laboratory- and diary-based behaviors. Results indicate the strong contributing influence of infant irritability to the perception of difficult temperament and support the validity of parental reports of infant irritability in the first 6 weeks of life.
AB - Objectives. This study examined correspondences among maternal and paternal ratings of infant temperament, parental psychological functioning, and infant behavior. Design. Participants included 120 families. When infants were 6 weeks old, mothers and fathers completed the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire (ICQ); reported on their own levels of anxiety, depressive symptoms, and parenting stress; and completed a 3-day diary of their infants' behavior. Infant irritability was assessed in a laboratory situation. Results. Fathers rated their infants' temperament somewhat more negatively, but there was significant correspondence between maternal and paternal ratings on the temperament factors of fussiness, unadaptability, dullness, and a difficultness composite. Higher infant difficultness was consistently associated with parenting stress. Infant behavioral fussiness, as measured by 3-day diaries, was significantly correlated with temperament ratings by both parents and with irritability observed in the laboratory setting. Maternal psychological distress was weakly predictive of ratings of infant difficultness; infant behaviors (diary and laboratory-based irritability) accounted for 15 to 17% of the variance. Paternal psychological distress and infant behaviors contributed equally to difficultness ratings. Conclusions. Mothers and fathers are influenced by somewhat different factors in perceiving their babies' temperament, but both maternal and paternal reports have a basis in laboratory- and diary-based behaviors. Results indicate the strong contributing influence of infant irritability to the perception of difficult temperament and support the validity of parental reports of infant irritability in the first 6 weeks of life.
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U2 - 10.1207/s15327922par0304_1
DO - 10.1207/s15327922par0304_1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33646708415
SN - 1529-5192
VL - 3
SP - 265
EP - 284
JO - Parenting
JF - Parenting
IS - 4
ER -