This study examines the relationship between infant temperament and parent physiological reactivity to a infant smiling and crying stimuli tape during pregnancy. The data for this study came from a larger longitudinal study examining newlywed couples and the transition to parenthood. The current investigation examined 23 married couples who took part in both pregnancy and post birth measures. Couples came into the laboratory when each wife was approximately 6 months pregnant and again when their infant was 3-6 months old. At the prenatal visit, ECG and finger pulse transit time were measured during a baseline condition and a condition in which couples watched a tape with a smiling or crying baby. The Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ; Rothbart, 1978) was administered to appraise the parents’ assessments of their infant’s temperament. Results revealed several measures of parent physiology, in response to infant signals, during pregnancy predicted parent report of infant temperament. Specifically, physiological responses indicating father relaxation were related to positive indexes of infant temperament, and physiological data indicating mother’s arousal in response to the smiling baby stimuli predicted later infant distress.
Anselmo,S., (1995) Early childhood development: Prenatal through age eight, Merrill
Braungrat,R.J., (1998) Infant affect and affect regulation during the still-face paradigm with mothers and fathers: The role of infant characteristics and parental sensitivity, Developmental Psychology
Brewster,A.L., (1998) Gender differences in physiological reactivity to infant cries and smiles in military families, Child Abuses & Neglect
Buss,A.H., (1975) A temperament theory of personality development, Wiley
Chen,C.J., (1990) Genetic variance and habitability of temperament among Chinese twin infants, ACTA Geneticae Medicae et Gemellologiae
Clark,L.A., (2005) Temperament as a unifying basis for personality and psychopathology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology
DiPietro,J.A., (2002) Maternal stress and affect influence fetal neurobehavioral development, Developmental Psychology
Derryberry,D., (1997) Reactive and effortful processes in the organization of temperament, Development and Psychopathology
Field,T., (1996) Attachment and separation in young children, Annual Review of Psychology
Frodi,A.M., (1981) Contribution of infant characteristics to child-abuse, American Journal of Mental Deficiency
Frodi,A.M., (1978) Sex differences in responsiveness to infants: A developmental study of psychophysiological and behavioral responses, Child Development
Frodi,A.M., (1978) Fathers and mothers responses to infant smiles and cries, Infant Behavior and Development
Frodi,A.M., (1980) Child abusers’ responses to infant smiles and cries, Child Development
Frodi,A.M., (1982) Mother’s responses to the cries of normal and premature infants as a function of the birth status of their own child, Journal of Research in Personality
Goldsmith,H.H., (1987) Attachment, temperament, and social referencing-interrelationship among three domains of infant affective behavior, Infant Behavior & Development
Goodman,S., (2002) Children of depressed parents: Mechanisms of risk and implications for treatment, American Psychological Association
Gordon,B.N., (1981) Child temperament and adult behavior-an exploration goodness of fit, Child Psychiatry and Human Development
Hamilton,C.E., (2000) Continuity and discontinuity of attachment from infancy through adolescence, Child Development
Huffman,L.C., (1996) Prenatal maternal reactivity to infant cries predicts postnatal perception of infant temperament marriage appraisal, Child Development
Jolley, S. N., (2006) Relationships between postpartum depression and infant temperament. Poster session presented at a meeting of the Western Institute or Nursing.?Albuquerque, New Mexico,
Jolley, S. N., (2005) The influence of early postpartum depression on the developing mother-infant relationship and observed infant temperament. Poster session presented at the 11th Biennial NCAST-AV,
Kagen,J., (1999) Early childhood predictors of adult anxiety disorders-a control study, Biological Psychiatry
Kochanska,G., (2005) Temperament, relationships, and young children's receptive cooperation with their parents, Developmental Psychology
Krokoff,L.J., (1984) A telephone version of the Locke-Wallace test of marital adjustment. Unpublished manuscript, University of Illinois, Champaign,
Locke,H., (1959) Short marital adjustment and prediction tests: Their reliability and validity, Marriage and Family Living
Monk,C., (2000) Maternal stress responses and anxiety during pregnancy: Effects on fetal heart rate, Developmental Psychology
Neal M.C., (1989) Rater bias in the EASI temperament scales: A twin study, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Parke,R.D., (1996) Fatherhood, Harvard University Press
Priel,B., (2000) Adult attachment styles, early relationships, antenatal attachment, and perceptions of infant temperament: A study of first-time mothers, Personal Relationships
Prior,M., (2000) Does shy-inhibited temperament in childhood lead to anxiety problems in adolescence, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Porges.S.W., (2001) The polyvagal theory:Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system, International Journal of Psychophysiology
Raush,H.L., (1974) Communication, conflict and marriage, Jossey Bass
Rothbart,M.K., (2001) Assessment of temperament in early development in : Biobehavioral assessment of the infant , Guilford
Rothbart,M.K., (2001) Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The children’s behavior questionnaire, Child Development
Rothbart,M.K., (1981) Measurement of temperament on infancy, Child Development
Rothbart,M.K., (1973) Laughter in young children, Psychological Bulletin
Sandman, C. A., (1994) Psychobiological influences of stress and HPA regulation on the human fetus and infant birth outcomes. Models of, Models of
Shapiro,A.F., (2005) Examining relationships between the marriage, mother-father- baby interactions and infant emotion regulation. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering. 65(7-B),
Sroufe,L.A., (1976) Ontogenesis of smiling and laughter-perspective on organization of development in infancy, Psychological Review
Teerikangas,O.M., (1998) Effects of infant temperament and early intervention on the psychiatric symptoms of adolescents, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Thomas,A., (1984) Genesis and evolution of behavior-disorders- from infancy to early adult life, American Journal of Psychiatry
Van den Boom,D.C., (1995) Do first-year intervention effects endure? Follow-up during toddlerhood of a sample of Dutch irritable infants, Child Development
Van den Bergh,B.R., (1990) The influence of maternal emotions during pregnancy on fetal and neonatal behavior, Journal of Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health