Infant temperament and child-rearing stress: birth order influences.
The relationship between an infant's temperamental difficulty and the mother's child-rearing stress was investigated in a sample of 128 children. Children's temperament was assessed by the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire (RITQ) at 6-7 months, and by the Toddler Temperament Scale (TTS) at 18 months. The mothers' child-rearing stress was assessed by a self-report questionnaire. At the children's age of 18 months, mothers of difficult children reported higher child-rearing stress than mothers of easy children. Although difference in the level of child-rearing stress reflecting birth order was not evident at either 6-7 months or 18 months, the proportion of child-rearing stress which could be explained by the children's temperament was highest for mothers of first-borns when their children were 18 months old.
Honjo
S
S
School of Education, Nagoya University, Japan.
Mizuno
R
R
Ajiki
M
M
Suzuki
A
A
Nagata
M
M
Goto
Y
Y
Nishide
T
T
D001722:Birth Order; D002668:Child Rearing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D009035:Mothers; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013694:Temperament