ASSESSING INFANT TEMPERAMENT USING AGGREGATE METHODS

提出了三项研究，将审查 研究个体在行为风格上的差异，或 性情，在生命的第一年。这些问题是 这些研究将包括：(1)是否有可观察到的 儿童第一年行为风格的稳定性 指性情理论所假定的那种生活；(2)做 聚集的方法提高了这样的可靠性 观察；(3)聚合方法是否提高了 父母关于孩子气质的报告的可靠性；(4) 儿童观察和家长报告的汇总 改善两者之间的对应程度；及(5)是 父母准确地直接观察婴儿的行为方式。这个 第一项研究将跟踪50名4岁至12岁的母婴 几个月的生命。每周对儿童行为的观察将是 并将获得每周的父母报告。分析将 旨在确定最优观测次数 为实现观察或报告的可靠性所必需的 这些方法。在研究2中，母亲们将对不同级别的 他们自己孩子的视频记录的行为风格以及 所有母亲都会评价的标准儿童的录像带。分析 将集中在母亲是否普遍使用一致的 向专业人员报告儿童情况时的一套规范 性情。研究3将结合在 研究1和研究2复制这些研究的结果以及 为开发的最终母公司报告工具提供验证 在这个项目的过程中。对儿童的多重观察 行为(由研究1的结果确定的数量)将 为此验证提供行为基础。

Three studies are proposed that will examine basic issues in the study of individual differences in behavioral style, or temperament, during the first year of life. The questions that these studies will address include: (1) are there observable stabilities in the behavioral style of children during the first year of life of the type assumed by theories of temperament; (2) do methods of aggregation improve the reliability of such observations; (3) do methods of aggregation improve the reliability of parental reports of child temperament; (4) does aggregation of both child observations and parental reports improve the degree of correspondence between them; and (5) are parents accurate direct observers of infant behavioral style. The first study will follow 50 mother-infant dyads from 4 through 12 months of life. Weekly observations of child behavior will be made, and weekly parental reports will be obtained. Analysis will be directed at determining an optimal number of observations necessary to achieve reliability of observation or report using these methods. In study 2, mothers will rate various scales of behavioral style for video records of their own children as well as tapes of standard children that all mothers will rate. Analysis will concentrate on whether mothers in general use a consistent set of norms when reporting to professionals about child temperament. Study 3 will combine the methods developed in studies 1 and 2 to replicate the findings of those studies as well as provide validation for a final parent report instrument developed during the course of this project. Multiple observations of child behavior (the number determined by the results of study 1) will provide the behavioral base for this validation.