ABSTRACT
The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the relation between infant temperament at 18 months and early Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities at 3 years of age. Temperament was assessed with the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) and ToM by assessing children's understanding of divergent desires and beliefs, and of knowledge access. Our results are in line with a social-emotional reactivity perspective postulating more sophisticated ToM abilities for children with less reactive more observant temperament. Children with shy temperament at 18 months and at 3 years were better in reasoning about others' mental states at age 3. Language, siblings and parental education had no effect on ToM. Findings indicate that temperament is related to ToM earlier in development than previously found, and that this relation is thus not unique to false-belief understanding.
Subject(s)
Child Behavior/psychology , Emotions , Shyness , Social Perception , Temperament , Theory of Mind , Child, Preschool , Comprehension , Female , Humans , Infant , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Neuropsychological TestsABSTRACT
This longitudinal study investigated the relation between infant temperament and dropout rate in two visual habituation tasks when infants (N=80) were 6 and 12 months of age. At both age points, infant temperament was assessed with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised (IBQ-R) and infants were presented with the same two habituation tasks that were similar in set-up and procedure but different in content. Consistent with previous German work, a two-factor solution was found at each age point indicating Surgency/Extraversion and Negative Affectivity as underlying temperament dimensions. Dropout rates in the habituation tasks ranged from 21% to 68%. Overall, only few IBQ-R subscales, especially Duration of Orienting, had an impact on dropout rate. This suggests that the relatively high dropout rates reported in infant looking time studies are not systematically related to infant temperament. However, findings also suggest that temperament might have an impact on the likelihood of dropout when a habituation task is conducted at the end of a longer test session.
