| Description |
The purpose of this study was to compare mothers' perceptions of infant adaptability, intensity of response, and approach/withdrawal with observations of behavior to a stranger in a laboratory setting using the Infant Wariness Response Scale. If the observed behavior correlated with the reported behavior, it would validate the mothers as accurate historians and the questionnaire as able to tap subtle behaviors. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant correlation between adaptability, intensity of response, and approach/ withdrawal scores on the Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire and the Infant responses to a stranger. A total of 36 infants between the ages of 22 and 40 weeks participated in the study. The sample was gathered from a pediatric practice in Salt Lake City, Utah, TheCarey Infant Temperament Questionnaire showed 63.8% of the sample were in the easy and low intermediate classifications. Another 25% were rated as difficult and high intermediate, and 11% were slow-to-warm-up. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients between trait scores from the questionnaire and the direction of change scores from the observation provided support for a verification of maternal report. The approach/withdrawal trait was significantly correlated with the direction of change between approaches two and three, and approaches one and three. The adaptability trait was significantly, correlated with the direction of change between approaches two and three. The approach/withdrawal trait yielded the highest correlations with the observation scores. Four of the six questions from the questionnaire that described infant response to a stranger were comprised from the approach/withdrawal trait. The approach/withdrawal trait was not significantly correlated with the initial responses of the observation. Conversely, it was correlated significantly with how an initial response changed over time. One interpretation was that the approach/withdrawal trait was also a measure of the adaptability trait. Age was an important variable of infant response. Older infants exhibited more fear responses. The Carey Infant Temperament Questionnaire can be a valuable assessment and counseling tool for the maternal-child nurse. It has applicability for a variety of situations. From the results of this study it was concluded that the mother was an accurate historian of infant temperament qualities. |
