Willoughby Michael T, Stifter Cynthia A, Gottfredson Nisha C
Education & Workforce Development, RTI International, United States.
Human Development & Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, United States.
Infant Behav Dev. 2015 May;39:21-34. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2015.02.001. Epub 2015 Feb 27.
This study investigated the factor structure of observational indicators of children's temperament that were collected across the first three years of life in the Family Life Project (N=1205) sample. A four-factor model (activity level, fear, anger, regulation), which corresponded broadly to Rothbart's distinction between reactivity and regulation, provided an acceptable fit the observed data. Tests of measurement invariance demonstrated that a majority of the observational indicators exhibited comparable measurement properties for male vs. female, black vs. white, and poor vs. not-poor children, which improved the generalizability of these results. Unadjusted demographic group comparisons revealed small to moderate sized differences (Cohen ds=|.23-.42|) in temperamental reactivity and moderate to large sized differences (Cohen ds=-.64--.97) in regulation. Collectively, demographic variables explained more of the variation in regulation (R(2)=.25) than in reactivity (R(2)=.02-.06). Follow-up analyses demonstrated that race differences were substantially diminished in magnitude and better accounted for by poverty. These results help to validate the distinction between temperamental reactivity and regulation using observational indicators.
本研究调查了家庭生活项目（N = 1205）样本中在儿童生命最初三年收集的儿童气质观察指标的因素结构。一个四因素模型（活动水平、恐惧、愤怒、调节），大致对应于罗斯巴特对反应性和调节性的区分，对观察数据提供了可接受的拟合。测量不变性检验表明，大多数观察指标在男性与女性、黑人与白人、贫困儿童与非贫困儿童之间表现出可比的测量属性，这提高了这些结果的普遍性。未经调整的人口统计学组比较显示，气质反应性存在小到中等程度的差异（科恩d值=|0.23 - 0.42|），调节性存在中等到大程度的差异（科恩d值=-0.64 - -0.97）。总体而言，人口统计学变量对调节性变异的解释（R² = 0.25）比对反应性变异的解释（R² = 0.02 - 0.06）更多。后续分析表明，种族差异的幅度大幅减小，且贫困能更好地解释这些差异。这些结果有助于验证使用观察指标对气质反应性和调节性进行区分的有效性。
