title: Can temperament be understood at birth? The relationship between neonatal pain cry and their temperament: a preliminary study.
abstract: This study investigated the relationship between the pain cries of neonates at 3-5 days and temperament at 1 month of age, as rated by mothers. A total of 68 healthy neonates' pain cries elicited by injection of the hepatitis B virus vaccine were analyzed and were categorized into "pre-part" and "post-part" cry by the determination of a regulatory point by observers, with a high consensus on spectrogram profiles. Differences in parameters between the pre-part and post-part of the pain cries and their association with the dimensions of temperament were analyzed. The results indicated that neonates who exhibited greater intensity pre-part crying had a more positive mood quality at 1 month, and those with shorter breath intervals after the regulatory point had a higher activity temperament score at 1 month. Moreover, the higher the pitch or the shorter the duration of the cry sounds in the post-part, the lower the adaptability score at 1 month. This study demonstrates that neonatal pain cry parameters could be used to understand subsequent temperament behavioral styles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 10610, Taiwan. t10020@ntnu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Jyh-Tsorng
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Jong
authors.forename: Tsair
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: Liang-Yi
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hung-Hsuan
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Po-Tsung
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Hui-Chung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D003448:Crying / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D018730:Infant Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D009043:Motor Activity; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010556:Personality Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012119:Respiration; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013694:Temperament; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D017325:Hepatitis B Vaccines