Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University.
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland.
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2024 Mar-Apr;53(2):156-168. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2023.2286586. Epub 2023 Dec 15.
Irritability symptoms are closely associated with, and may reflect, temperament traits, particularly negative affectivity (NA). However, there are few empirical data on the relationships between child temperament and irritability symptoms.
We investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between irritability symptoms and temperament traits from age 3-15 in a community sample of 609 children and their parents. Irritability symptoms were assessed through structured interviews with parents at ages 3/6, and inventories completed by parents and youth at ages 12/15. Temperament traits were assessed using parent reports at ages 3/6, and parent and child reports at ages 12/15. Path analysis and structural equation modeling were used to explore longitudinal associations from ages 3-6 and 12-15, respectively.
Higher levels of irritability symptoms at ages 3/6 were concurrently associated with higher levels of NA and lower levels of effortful control (EC). In adolescence, higher irritability symptoms were concurrently associated with higher negative temperament and disinhibition. In longitudinal analyses from age 3-6 and 12-15, irritability symptoms showed modest but significant stability after adjusting for the stability of temperament traits. However, there were significant differences in the stability paths at age 3-6, reflecting lower stability of irritability symptoms. Finally, EC at age 3 predicted increased irritability symptoms at age 6, while irritability symptoms at age 3 predicted increased NA at age 6.
Irritability symptoms are robustly associated with both temperamental NA and difficulty regulating attention and behavior. These findings help situate irritability symptoms within widely accepted temperament/personality taxonomies.
易激惹症状与气质特征密切相关，可能反映了气质特征，尤其是负性情感（NA）。然而，关于儿童气质与易激惹症状之间的关系，实证数据较少。
我们调查了 609 名儿童及其父母的社区样本中，从 3 岁到 15 岁时易激惹症状与气质特征之间的横断面和纵向关系。通过父母在 3/6 岁时进行的结构化访谈以及父母和青少年在 12/15 岁时完成的问卷评估易激惹症状。在 3/6 岁时使用父母报告评估气质特征，在 12/15 岁时使用父母和儿童报告评估气质特征。使用路径分析和结构方程模型分别探索从 3 岁到 6 岁和 12 岁到 15 岁的纵向关联。
3/6 岁时易激惹症状水平较高与 NA 水平较高和努力控制（EC）水平较低相关。在青春期，较高的易激惹症状与负性气质和抑制不足相关。在 3 岁到 6 岁和 12 岁到 15 岁的纵向分析中，调整气质特征的稳定性后，易激惹症状具有适度但显著的稳定性。然而，在 3 岁到 6 岁的稳定性路径中存在显著差异，反映出易激惹症状的稳定性较低。最后，3 岁时的 EC 预测 6 岁时易激惹症状的增加，而 3 岁时的易激惹症状预测 6 岁时 NA 的增加。
易激惹症状与气质的 NA 和注意力和行为调节困难均密切相关。这些发现有助于将易激惹症状置于广泛接受的气质/人格分类中。
