Sidor Anna, Fischer Cristina, Cierpka Manfred
Institute for Psychosocial Prevention, University Clinic Heidelberg, Bergheimerstr. 54, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2017 Mar 6;11:10. doi: 10.1186/s13034-017-0148-5. eCollection 2017.
Difficult conditions during childhood can limit an individual's development in many ways. Factors such as being raised in an at-risk family, child temperamental traits or maternal traits can potentially influence a child's later behaviour. The present study investigated the extent of regulatory problems in 6-month-old infants and their link to temperamental traits and impact on externalizing and internalizing problems at 36 months. Moderating effects of maternal distress and maternal depressive symptoms were tested as well.
In a quasi-experimental, longitudinal study, a sample of 185 mother-infant dyads at psychosocial risk was investigated at 6 months with SFS (infants' regulatory problems) and at 3 years with CBCL (children's behavioural problems), EAS (children's temperament), ADS (maternal depressive symptoms) and PSI-SF (maternal stress).
A hierarchical regression analysis yielded a significant association between infants' regulatory problems and both externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems at age 3 (accounting for 16% and 14% variance), with both externalizing and internalizing problems being linked to current maternal depressive symptoms (12 and 9% of the variance). Externalizing and internalizing problems were found to be related also to children's temperamental difficulty (18 and 13% of variance) and their negative emotionality. With temperamental traits having been taken into account, only feeding problems at 6 months contributed near-significant to internalizing problems at 3 years.
Our results underscore the crucial role of temperament in the path between early regulatory problems and subsequent behavioural difficulties. Children's unfavourable temperamental predispositions such as negative emotionality and generally "difficult temperament" contributed substantially to both externalizing and internalizing behavioural problems in the high-risk sample. The decreased predictive power of regulatory problems following the inclusion of temperamental variables indicates a mediation effect of temperamental traits in the path between early regulatory problems and subsequent behavioural problems. Our results support the main effects of a child's temperament, and to some degree maternal depressive symptoms, rather than the diathesis stress model of interaction between risky environment and temperamental traits. D10025651 (NZFH).
童年时期的艰难处境会在许多方面限制个体的发展。诸如在高危家庭中成长、儿童气质特征或母亲的特质等因素都可能影响孩子日后的行为。本研究调查了6个月大婴儿的调节问题程度及其与气质特征的联系，以及对36个月大时外化和内化问题的影响。同时也测试了母亲的痛苦和母亲的抑郁症状的调节作用。
在一项准实验性纵向研究中，对185对处于社会心理风险中的母婴样本进行了调查，在6个月时使用SFS（婴儿的调节问题），在3岁时使用CBCL（儿童行为问题）、EAS（儿童气质）、ADS（母亲抑郁症状）和PSI-SF（母亲压力）。
分层回归分析显示，婴儿的调节问题与3岁时的外化和内化行为问题之间存在显著关联（分别解释16%和14%的方差），外化和内化问题均与当前母亲的抑郁症状有关（分别解释12%和9%的方差）。外化和内化问题还与儿童的气质困难（分别解释18%和13%的方差）及其负面情绪有关。在考虑了气质特征后，只有6个月时的喂养问题对3岁时的内化问题有接近显著的影响。
我们的结果强调了气质在早期调节问题与随后行为困难之间的路径中所起的关键作用。儿童不利的气质倾向，如负面情绪和一般的“难养型气质”，在高危样本中对外化和内化行为问题都有很大影响。纳入气质变量后调节问题的预测能力下降，表明气质特征在早期调节问题与随后行为问题之间的路径中起中介作用。我们的结果支持儿童气质的主要影响，以及在一定程度上母亲的抑郁症状的影响，而不是风险环境与气质特征之间相互作用的素质应激模型。D10025651（新西兰家庭健康）
