[A questionnaire for assessment of "temprament in early childhood" as judged by parents].
OBJECTIVE
This study assesses a German version of Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire for the internal consistency, inter-correlations and stability of the scales. Associations between the scales with maternal depression and anxiety are analyzed.


METHODS
Independent samples of infants aged 6 to 8 months and 10 to 12 months (n = 149, respectively n = 109) and their mothers were studied. A longitudinal study of a sample of 101 mother-infant pairs was carried out at the infant's age of 4, 8 and 12 months.


RESULTS
The internal consistency and independence of the five scales on the questionnaire are satisfactory. The stability coefficients correspond to a good degree to those of the American version of the IBQ scales.


CONCLUSIONS
Thus a German version is now available that can be used in research and practice to measure the features of early childhood temperament by parental report.
Pauli-Pott
U
U
Universitätsklinikum der Justus-Liebig-Universität, Abteilung Medizinische Psychologie, Giessen. Ursula.Pauli-Pott@psycho.med.uni-giessen.de
Mertesacker
B
B
Beckmann
D
D
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010553:Personality Development; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013694:Temperament