The Development of Behavioral Inhibition: Infant Temperament and Maternal Style

This study examines the contributions of infant temperament and maternal style to the development of behavioral inhibition during the first year of life. It was hypothesized that children whose mothers allowed them to experience small amounts of frustration, thereby allowing the child to develop cop...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Arcus, Doreen
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.04.1991
Subjects
Auditory Stimuli
Avoidance Behavior
Avoidance Responses
Child Rearing
Coping
Fear
Frustration
Home Visits
Individual Differences
Infants
Inhibition
Limbic Learning
Mothers
Olfactory Stimuli
Parent Child Relationship
Personality
Physical Activity Level
Visual Stimuli
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Summary:This study examines the contributions of infant temperament and maternal style to the development of behavioral inhibition during the first year of life. It was hypothesized that children whose mothers allowed them to experience small amounts of frustration, thereby allowing the child to develop coping strategies for such situations, would show less inhibition than other children. Two extreme groups of infants were selected at 4 months based on their reactions to change and variation in auditory, visual, and olfactory stimuli: (1) infants who demonstrated high degrees of motor activity and crying, and fast heart rate; and (2) infants who showed low degrees of the same characteristics. Infants and their mothers were videotaped in their homes when infants were 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 months old. Visits to the homes revealed individual differences among mothers in their responses to infants' crying and fretting, and in limit-setting behavior. Results indicated that mothers of highly reactive children who were indirect in their limit-setting late in the first year, and highly responsive to fretting and crying early in the first year, facilitated the actualization of an inhibited profile given the infant's initial temperamental bias. Both infant temperament and maternal style contributed to the display of fearless or fearful behavior in laboratory assessment when infants were 14 months old. (GLR)