Are Maternal Emotions Associated with Infant Temperament and Attachment

This research focused on the relationship between maternal emotion and infant temperament.Attachment classification at 12 months was also examined from the perspective of its relation to mother's perception of her emotion as well as that of infant temperament.Twenty-five mothers and their first-born infants were investigated at the age of 16 months.Mothers' primary emotions such as fear, sadness or expectancy measured by the Emotions Profile Index(EPI) were significantly related to infants' intensity of emotional expression or approach-withdrawal dimensions on the Infant Temperament Questionnaire(ITQ).It was suggested that mothers' higherCvs lower) joy and infants' easy (vs difficult or slow-to-warm-up) temperament interacted with each other.In addition, infant's mood was correlated with her (his) emotional behavior during a separation procedure in the home.A relationship between higher maternal fear and negative infant behavior such as crying, fussing and so on was also discovered.As for attachment classification, a significant associaton with infant's temperamental tendency to be easy vs slow-to warm-up was evident.Theoretical interpretations for these results were discussed.