Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:15:03.049Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temperament and Behavior Problems in Toddlers Born Preterm and Very Low Birth Weight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2013

Vivian Caroline Klein ,
Luciana Cosentino Rocha ,
Francisco Eulógio Martinez ,
Samuel P. Putnam  and
Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares
Vivian Caroline Klein
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
Luciana Cosentino Rocha
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
Francisco Eulógio Martinez
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
Samuel P. Putnam
Affiliation:
Bowdoin College (USA)
Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares*
Affiliation:
Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Maria Beatriz Martins Linhares. Laboratório de Pesquisa em Prevenção de Problemas de Desenvolvimento e Comportamento da Criança. Av. Tenente Catão Roxo, 2650. Prédio da Saúde Mental (salas 52/53). Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto–USP. Campus Monte Alegre–USP. Ribeirão Preto-São Paulo. (Brazil). Phone: +55-1636024610. Fax: +55-163602-4504. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the temperament and behavior problems of 32 toddlers born preterm and very low birth weight and 25 toddlers born full-term without medical problems. Mothers completed the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire and the Child Behavior Checklist-1.5–5 for assessing toddler`s temperament and behavior problems, respectively. The results showed that, regarding temperament, toddlers born preterm exhibited higher scores on the temperament dimensions Motor Activation, Perceptual Sensitivity, and High Intensity Pleasure, and lower scores on the temperament dimension Cuddliness than toddlers born full-term. In regard to behavior problems, toddlers born preterm showed higher attention problems scores than the comparison group. These findings indicated that children born preterm presented developmental vulnerabilities in temperament dimensions related to behavior problems at toddlerhood. Early intervention programs for preventing psychological problems in at-risk children, especially those born preterm, could focus on children’s temperament dispositions.

Keywords

temperamentbehavior problemspretermvery low birth weighttoddlerhood
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 16 , 2013 , E18
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This work was supported by the National Council of Science and Technology Development (CNPq); and by the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). The authors gratefully thank the Neonatology Service at the Hospital of Clinics of the School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, and the families for participating in this study.

References

Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2000). Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 1.5–5. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.Google Scholar
Anderson, P. J., Doyle, L. W., & Victorian Infant Collaborative Study Group. (2004). Executive functioning in school-aged children who were born very preterm or with extremely low birth weight in the 1990s. Pediatrics, 114, 50–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.114.1.50 Google Scholar
Assel, M. A., Landry, S. H., Swank, P. R., Steelman, L., Miller-Loncar, C., & Smith, K. E. (2002). How do mothers’ childrearing histories, stress and parenting affect children’s behavioral outcomes? Child: Care, Health and Development, 28, 359–368. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2214.2002.00285.x Google Scholar
Bohnert, K. M., & Breslau, N. (2008). Stability of psychiatric outcomes of low birth weight. Archives of General Psychiatry, 65, 1080–1086. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.65.9.1080 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brazilian Association of Research Companies (2008). Brazilian Criteria for Economic Classification. São Paulo, Brazil: Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Pesquisa Retreived from http://www.abep.org/novo/Content.aspx?SectionID=84 Google Scholar
Bhutta, A. T., Cleves, M. A., Casey, P. H., Cradock, M. M., & Anand, K. J. (2002). Cognitive and behavioral outcomes of school-aged children who were born preterm: A meta-analysis. The Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 728–737. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.6.728 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calkins, S. (2009). Regulatory competence and early disruptive behavior problems: The role of physiological regulation. In Olson, S. L. & Sameroff, A. J. (Eds.), Biopsychosocial regulatory processes in the development of childhood behavioral problems (pp. 86–107). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, C. A. C., Woodward, L. J., Horwood, L. J., & Moor, S. (2008). Development of emotional and behavioral regulation in children born extremely preterm and very preterm: Biological and social influences. Child Development, 79, 1444–14462. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01198.x Google Scholar
Cockburn, F., Cooke, R., Gamsu, H., Greenough, A., Hopkins, A., Mcintosh, N.,… Wilkinson, , , A. R. (1993). The CRIB (Clinical Index for Babies) score: A tool for assessing initial neonatal risk and comparing performance of neonatal intensive care units. Lancet, 342, 193–198. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0140-6736(93)92296-6 Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, M. (2005). The development of nociceptive circuits. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6, 507–520. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nrn1701 Google Scholar
Gartstein, M. A., Putnam, S. P., & Rothbart, M. K. (2012). Etiology of preschool behavior problems: Contributions of temperament attributes in early childhood. Infant Mental Health Journal, 33, 197–211 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21312 Google Scholar
Gartstein, M. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (2003). Studying infant temperament via the Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Infant Behavior and Development, 26, 64–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(02)00169-8 Google Scholar
Gaspardo, C. M., Chimello, J. T., Cugler, T. S., Martinez, F. E., & Linhares, M. B. M. (2008). Pain and tactile stimuli during arterial puncture in preterm neonates. Pain, 15, 58–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2008.07.004 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, R. F., Indurkhya, A., & McCormick, M. (2004). Prevalence, stability and predictors of clinically significant behavior problems in low birth weight children at 3, 5, and 8 years of age. Pediatrics, 114, 736–743. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2003-1150-L CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grunau, R. E., Holsti, L., & Peters, J. W. B. (2006). Long-term consequences of pain in human neonates. Seminars in Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, 11, 268–275. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2006.02.007 Google Scholar
Grunau, R., Weinberg, J., & Whitfield, M. (2004). Neonatal procedural pain and preterm infant cortisol response to novelty at 8 months. Pediatrics, 114, 77–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.114.1.e77 Google Scholar
Hughes, M. B., Shults, J., McGrath, J., & Medoff-Cooper, B. (2002). Temperament characteristics of premature infants in the first year of life. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 23, 430–435. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00004703-200212000-00006 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerestes, G. (2005). Maternal ratings of temperamental characteristics of healthy premature infants are indistinguishable from those of full-term infants. Croatian Medical Journal, 46, 36–44.Google Scholar
Klein, V. C. (2009). Pain reactivity, temperament and behavior in the developmental pathways of preterm neonates until preschool age. (Doctoral dissertation), Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil.Google Scholar
Klein, V. C., Gaspardo, C. M., Martinez, F. E., Grunau, R. E., & Linhares, M. B. M. (2009). Pain and distress reactivity and recovery as early predictors of temperament in toddlers born preterm. Early Human Development, 85, 569–576. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2009.06.001 Google Scholar
Klein, V. C., Putnam, S. P., & Linhares, M. B. M. (2009). Assessment of temperament in children: Translation of instruments to Portuguese (Brazil) Language. Interamerican Journal of Psychology, 43, 442–447.Google Scholar
Larroque, B., N’guyen, , The Tich, S., Guedeney, A., Marchand, L., & Burguet, A. (2005). Temperament at nine months of very preterm infants born at less than 29 weeks’ gestation: The Epipage study. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 26, 48–55.Google ScholarPubMed
McClowry, S. G., Rodriguez, E. T., & Koslowitz, R. (2008). Temperament-based intervention: Re-examining goodness of fit. European Journal of Developmental Science, 2, 120–135.Google Scholar
Martins, I. B. M., Linhares, M. B. M., & Martinez, F. E. (2005). Indicadores de desenvolvimento na fase pré-escolar de crianças nascidas pré-temo [Development at pre-school age of children born pre-term]. Psicologia em Estudo, 10, 235–243.Google Scholar
Minde, K. (2000). Prematurity and serious medical conditions in infancy: Implications for development, behavior and intervention. In Zeanah, C. (Ed.), Handbook of infant mental health (pp.176–194). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Nygaard, E., Smith, L., & Torgersen, A. M. (2002). Temperament in children with Down syndrome and in prematurely born children. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 43, 61–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00269 Google Scholar
Olafsen, K. S., Kaaresen, P. I., Handegard, B. H., Ulvund, S. E., Dahl, L. B., & Ronning, J. A. (2008). Maternal ratings of infant regulatory competence from 6 to 12 months: Influence of perceived stress, birth-weight, and intervention: A randomized controlled trial. Infant Behavior and Development, 31, 408–421. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.12.005 Google Scholar
Poehlmann, J., Schwichtenberg, A. J. M., Shah, P. E., Shlafer, R. J., Hahn, E., & Maleck, F. (2010). The development of effortful control in children born preterm. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 39, 522–536. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2010.486319 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Putnam, S. P., Ellis, L. K., & Rothbart, M. K. (2001). The structure of temperament from infancy through adolescence. In Eliasz, A. & Angleitner, A. (Eds.), Advances in research on temperament (pp. 165–182). Lengerich, Germany: Pabst Scientific.Google Scholar
Putnam, S. P., Gartstein, M. A., & Rothbart, M. K. (2006). Measurement of fine-grained aspects of toddler temperament: The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire. Infant Behavior and Development, 29, 386–401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2006.01.004 Google Scholar
Reijneveld, S. A., Kleine, M. J. K., van Baar, , , A. L., Kollée, L. A. A., Verhaak, C. M., Verhulst, F. C., & Verloove-Vanhorick, S. P. (2006). Behavioral and emotional problems in very preterm and very low birthweight infants at age 5 years. Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal, 91, 423–428. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/adc.2006.093674 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K. (2004a). Commentary: Differentiated measures of temperament and multiple pathways to childhood disorders. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 33, 82–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15374424JCCP3301_8 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K. (2004b). Temperament and the pursuit of an integrated developmental psychology. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50, 492–505. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/mpq.2004.0035 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2007). Temperament. In Damon, W. & Lerner, R. M. (Series Eds.) & Eisenberg, N. (Volume Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional and personality development (6 th ed. pp. 99–165) New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0303 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Chew, K., & Gartstein, M. A. (2001). Assessment of temperament in early development. In Singer, L. & Zeskind, P. S. (Eds.), Biobehavioral assessment of the infant (pp. 190–208). New York, NY: Guilford.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Derryberry, D. (1981). Development of individual differences in temperament. In Lamb, M. E. & Brown, A. L. (Eds.), Advances in developmental psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 37–86). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Ellis, L. K., Rueda, M. R., & Posner, M. I. (2003). Developing mechanisms of temperamental effortful control. Journal of Personality, 71, 1113–1144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.7106009 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Hwang, J. (2002). Measuring infant temperament. Infant Behavior and Development, 25, 113–116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(02)00109-1 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Kieras, J. (2006). Temperament, attention, and the development of self-regulation. In McCartney, K. & Phillips, D. (Eds.), The Blackwell handbook of early child development (pp.338–357). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470757703.ch17 Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., & Putnam, S. (2002). Temperament and socialization. In Pulkinnem, L. & Caspi, A. (Eds.), Paths to successful development: personality in the life course (pp. 19–45). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489761.002 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sajaniemi, N., Salokorpi, T., & Wendt, von. (1998). Temperamental profiles and their role in neurodevelopmental assessed preterm children at two years of age. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 7, 145–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samara, M., Marlow, N., Wolke, D., & The Epicure Study Group. (2008). Pervasive behavior problems at 6 years of age in a total-population sample of children born at < 25 weeks of gestation. Pediatrics, 122, 562–573. http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2007-3231 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sun, J., Mohay, H., & O’Callaghan, M. A. (2008). Comparison of executive function in very preterm and term infants at eight months corrected age. Early Human Development, 85, 225–230.Google Scholar
Tu, M. T., Grunau, R. E., Petrie-Thomas, J., Hale, D. W., Weinberg, J., & Whitfield, M. (2007). Maternal stress and behavior modulate relationships between neonatal stress, attention, and basal cortisol at 8 months in preterm infants. Developmental Psychobiology, 49, 150–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/dev.20204 Google Scholar
van de Weijer-Bergsma, E., Wijnroks, L., & Jongmans, M. J. (2008). Attention development in infants and preschool children born preterm: A review. Infant Behavior & Development, 31, 333–351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.12.003 Google Scholar
Wachs, T. D. (2006). Contributions of temperament to buffering and sensitization processes in children’s development. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1094, 28–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1196/annals.1376.004 Google Scholar
Weiss, S. J., St. John-Seed, M., & Wilson, P. (2004). The temperament of preterm, low birth weight infants and its potential biological substrates. Research in Nursing & Health, 27, 392–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitfield, M. F., & Grunau, R. E. (2000). Behavior, pain perception, and the extremely low-birth weight survivor. Clinics and Perinatology, 27, 363–379. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0095-5108(05)70026-9 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zhong, J., & Qian, M. (2005). A study of development and validation of Chinese Mood Adjective Check List. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 13, 8–13.Google Scholar