Temperament in Infancy and Children's Behavior in the Strange Situation Paradigm With Mothers and Fathers

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

For several decades, attachment theory has been remarkably influential in developmental psychology and psychopathology, in part due to its focus on early experiences in development, which provided a natural synergy with the emerging science of relationships. The Strange Situation Paradigm (SSP) has been accepted by attachment scholars as the “gold standard” for assessing infants’ attachment classifications (secure, avoidant, resistant, or disorganized), seen as reflecting the history of the parent-infant relationship. A large literature has supported reliable, if modest, relations between infants’ early relationships and behavior in SSP.

The equally influential research on biologically-based individual differences has demonstrated powerful effects of children’s temperament on their behavior. Temperament researchers have argued that infants’ behavior in SSP reflects their temperament characteristics, particularly fearfulness and negative emotionality. This debate inspired multiple studies. Overall, data have been inconclusive, and the issue remains central in developmental science (e.g., Groh et al., 2017).

In Children and Parents Study (200 community infants, mothers, and fathers), we examined relations between infants’ temperament at 7-9 months and their behavior in SSP at 15-17 months with each parent. We adopted a more nuanced approach than most studies in that we focused on continuous, rather than categorical, measures derived from SSP as dependent variables. Following the methodology proposed by Richters, Waters, and Vaughn (1988), modified by van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1990), we created two continuous measures: security (for all children), and resistance vs. avoidance (for insecure children), with higher scores denoting a child closer to the resistant than avoidant end. Additionally, we examined ratings of distress during the separation episodes and ratings of disorganization.

With regard to temperament, we focused on social fear and negative emotionality, most pertinent to children’s response to SSP. Social fear was a composite of facial, vocal, and motor expressions of fearful distress and latency to express distress (the standard Stranger Approach episode, Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery, Goldsmith & Rothbart, 1999). Both parents rated negative emotionality (Infant Behavior Questionnaire, Rothbart & Gartstein, 2000).

Multiple regressions revealed that neither fear nor negative emotionality predicted children’s security with either parent. Parent-reported negative emotionality was positively associated with being resistant rather than avoidant in insecurely attached children, with both mothers, β = 0.37, p < 0.01, and fathers, β = 0.26, p = 0.05. Higher negative emotionality also predicted increased separation distress with fathers, β = 0.16, p < 0.05, but not with mothers, β = 0.08, ns. Social fear was associated positively with separation distress, β = 0.24, p < 0.01, and disorganization, β = 0.18, p < 0.05, for children with fathers, but not with mothers, β = 0.14 ns; β = 0.03, ns. Child gender was covaried (boys were rated as more disorganized with mothers, β = -0.21, p < 0.01, and girls more distressed in separations with fathers, β = 0.15, p < 0.05).

We discuss the complex role of temperament in attachment assessments. Whereas not predictive of security, temperament can be associated with separation distress, disorganization, and type of insecurity, differently for mother- and father-child relationships.

Authors

• Lilly Bendel-Stenzel, University of Iowa
  Presenting Author

• Rochelle Praska, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Neevetha Sivagurunathan, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sung Yi Shin, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Grazyna Kochanska, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author