title: Maternal and contextual influences and the effect of temperament development during infancy on parenting in toddlerhood.
abstract: In the current study, latent growth modeling (LGM) was used to: (1) identify the developmental trajectories of infant negative emotions (NE) and regulatory capacity (RC) from 4 to 12 months of age, (2) examine maternal and family factors that may affect NE and RC trajectories, (3) examine transactional associations between developing NE and RC, and (4) examine the effect of infant temperament trajectories on negative parenting when toddlers reached 18 months of age. Mothers from 156 families completed a measure of infant temperament when infants were 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 months of age and completed maternal relationship stress, depression, and family demographics measures when infants were 4 months of age. Information regarding negative parenting was collected when toddlers reached 18 months of age. LGM results suggest that maternal relationship stress and depression influence infant NE development, that high NE early in infancy may compromise the development of infant regulation, and that steeper decreases of infant RC contribute the greatest amount of variance to negative parenting in toddlerhood. The implications for models of early emotion regulation and incorporating changes in temperament over time into developmentally sensitive models (e.g., emerging parenting practices and developmental psychopathology) are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Child Study Center, Yale University, 230 S. Frontage Rd., New Haven, CT 06520, USA. david.bridgett@yale.edu
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Bridgett
authors.forename: Maria A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Gartstein
authors.forename: Samuel P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Putnam
authors.forename: Talia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McKay
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Iddins
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramsay
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rittmueller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult