Continuity and discontinuity of behavioral inhibition and exuberance: psychophysiological and behavioral influences across the first four years of life.
Four-month-old infants were screened (N = 433) for temperamental patterns thought to predict behavioral inhibition, including motor reactivity and the expression of negative affect. Those selected (N = 153) were assessed at multiple age points across the first 4 years of life for behavioral signs of inhibition as well as psychophysiological markers of frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry. Four-month temperament was modestly predictive of behavioral inhibition over the first 2 years of life and of behavioral reticence at age 4. Those infants who remained continuously inhibited displayed right frontal EEG asymmetry as early as 9 months of age while those who changed from inhibited to noninhibited did not. Change in behavioral inhibition was related to experience of nonparental care. A second group of infants, selected at 4 months of age for patterns of behavior thought to predict temperamental exuberance, displayed a high degree of continuity over time in these behaviors.
Department of Human Development, University of Maryland, College Park 20742, USA. nf4@umail.umd.edu
N A
NA
Fox
H A
HA
Henderson
K H
KH
Rubin
S D
SD
Calkins
L A
LA
Schmidt
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000367:Age Factors; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011930:Reaction Time; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology