Farkas Chamarrita, Vallotton Claire
Psychology School, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Ave. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, Santiago, Chile.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Michigan State University, 552 W. Circle Drive, 5A Human Ecology, East Lansing, MI 48824-1030, USA.
Infant Behav Dev. 2016 Aug;44:208-18. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2016.07.005. Epub 2016 Jul 21.
Temperament refers to individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation and is influenced by genetic and experiential variation and maturation. Temperament reflects biologically based individual differences that emerge in early life and remain relatively stable thereafter. Given the growing interest in cultural variation in infant temperament, this study examined the temperament of 12-month-old children in Chile and the US. The aims were to validate a version of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire - Revised - Very Short Form in Spanish for Chile and to compare Chilean and US infants' temperament. For the first aim, 150 Chilean infants aged 10-15 months were assessed, and 73 US infants aged 10-15 months were examined for the second aim. The children's parents completed a demographic questionnaire and the IBQ-R-VSF, which measures three dimensions of temperament: Surgency, Negative Affectivity, and Effortful Control. The reliability of each dimension for the Chilean sample was between 0.70 and 0.75, and significant differences between Chilean and US infants emerged. Parents of Chilean infants reported higher levels of Effortful Control, whereas US parents reported that their infants exhibited higher levels of Negative Affectivity. A relationship between parents' higher educational level and infants' higher levels of Surgency was found for both countries. No gender or age differences were observed for any of the three temperament dimensions. These results and their implications for cultural studies are discussed.
气质指的是个体在反应性和自我调节方面的差异，它受到遗传、经验变化以及成熟度的影响。气质反映了基于生物学的个体差异，这些差异在生命早期出现，并在之后保持相对稳定。鉴于对婴儿气质文化差异的兴趣日益浓厚，本研究调查了智利和美国12个月大儿童的气质。目的是为智利验证西班牙语版的《婴儿行为问卷修订版 - 超简版》，并比较智利和美国婴儿的气质。对于第一个目标，评估了150名10 - 15个月大的智利婴儿，对于第二个目标，检查了73名10 - 15个月大的美国婴儿。儿童的父母完成了一份人口统计学问卷和《婴儿行为问卷修订版 - 超简版》，该问卷测量气质的三个维度：外向性、消极情绪性和努力控制。智利样本中每个维度的信度在0.70至0.75之间，智利和美国婴儿之间出现了显著差异。智利婴儿的父母报告说其子女的努力控制水平较高，而美国父母报告说他们的婴儿消极情绪性水平较高。在两个国家都发现父母的较高教育水平与婴儿较高的外向性水平之间存在关联。在三个气质维度中均未观察到性别或年龄差异。讨论了这些结果及其对文化研究的启示。
