Changes in Maternal Characteristics Are Predictive of Changes in Maternal Perception of Infant Temperament

Abstract

It is an observable fact that babies behave differently from each other as soon as they are born. The term temperament describes an infant's style of reactivity in terms of tempo, energy, focus, mood, and rhythmicity of behavior (Thomas & Chess, 1977). Infants have been characterized as having one of three temperaments: difficult, easy, or slow-to-warm-up. The idea of a difficult, easy, or slow-to-warmup temperament stems from the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS) of Thomas, Chess, Birch, Hertzig, and Korn (1963), who, by following a group of children from infancy to adulthood and through parental interviews that began when the infant was 3 months old, differentiated nine categories of infant reactivity. From these nine categories, Thomas et al. identified the three clusters of difficult, easy, and slow-to-warm-up. The difficult child may be described as irregular (unpredictable), nonadaptive, slow in initial approach, and having intense negative reactions. The easy infant is regular (predictable), positive, adaptive, easy to approach, and low in intensity of response. The slow-to-warm-up child is active, but also withdrawing, with low adaptability, sometimes negative mood, and low intensity.