Dunn J, Kendrick C
Ciba Found Symp. 1982;89:87-105. doi: 10.1002/9780470720714.ch6.
In a longitudinal study of 40 firstborn children, temperamental differences between the children were found to be linked to the emergence and persistence of anxious and unhappy behaviour over the year following the birth of a sibling. Direct observation showed that these temperamental differences were also associated with differences in the children's interactions with their mothers, and with differences in their behaviour towards their mothers when mother and sibling were interacting. In contrast, the wide range of individual differences in the behaviour of the firstborn children to their siblings was not associated with temperamental difference between the children. There was some evidence for continuity in temperamental differences between the assessments before and after the sibling birth, but in many children the behavioural changes were marked. These findings underline the clinical significance of temperamental differences in children's vulnerability to changes in family life; they also indicate that 'temperament' should be considered not as a characteristic of the child independent of his or her particular family relationships but, on the contrary, as closely linked to his or her relationship with the mother, and as susceptible to the effects of marked change in the family environment.
在一项针对40名头胎儿童的纵向研究中，研究人员发现，孩子们的气质差异与弟弟妹妹出生后一年内焦虑和不快乐行为的出现及持续存在有关。直接观察表明，这些气质差异还与孩子们和母亲互动方式的差异，以及母亲与弟弟妹妹互动时孩子们对母亲的行为差异有关。相比之下，头胎儿童对弟弟妹妹行为的广泛个体差异与孩子们之间的气质差异并无关联。有证据表明，弟弟妹妹出生前后的气质差异存在一定连续性，但许多孩子的行为变化显著。这些发现凸显了气质差异在儿童受家庭生活变化影响的易感性方面的临床意义；它们还表明，“气质”不应被视为独立于孩子特定家庭关系的一种特征，相反，应被视为与孩子和母亲的关系紧密相连，并易受家庭环境显著变化的影响。
