Cross-cultural differences in temperament in the first year of life: United States of America (US) and Russia

Abstract

Cross-cultural differences in temperament were evaluated for Russian ( N = 90) and US ( N = 90) samples of infants. Significant differences in levels of temperament characteristics, and the structure of temperament, were anticipated. Age and gender differences evaluated for the Russian sample were expected to be consistent with those reported for US infants. The Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised, a recently developed parent-report assessment tool, was utilised with both samples. Differences between these cultures were evaluated for 14 dimensions of temperament: activity level, smiling/laughter, fear, distress to limitations, duration of orienting, soothability, vocal reactivity, high and low intensity pleasure, falling reactivity, affiliation/cuddliness, perceptual sensitivity, sadness, and approach. Significant differences between Russian and US infants emerged for six of the IBQ-R scales. Parents of infants in the US reported higher levels of smiling/laughter, high and low intensity pleasure, perceptual sensitivity, and vocal reactivity, whereas Russian infants’ scores were higher for distress to limitations. Correlation matrix comparison procedure and exploratory factor analysis indicated differences in the structure of temperament for the two cultural groups. Age differences observed for the Russian infants were generally consistent with those reported for a US sample; gender differences did not emerge in this study.

Infant Temperament in Russia, United States of America, and Israel: Differences and Similarities Between Russian-speaking Families

“…This finding is surprising in light of previous research that showed higher levels of regulatory capacity for the American infants as compared to a Russian sample [17]. These studies utilized the same measure of temperament, thus, the discrepancy may be explained by the differences between included samples.…”

“…The IBQ-R is comprised of 14 scales that have been factor analyzed to yield three overarching temperament dimensions: Positive Affectivity/Surgency (PAS: Approach, Vocal Reactivity, High Intensity Pleasure, Smiling and Laughter, Activity Level, and Perceptual Sensitivity); Negative Affectivity (NA: Sadness, Distress to Limitations, Fear, and negatively loading Falling Reactivity; Orienting/Regulatory Capacity (ORC: Low Intensity Pleasure, Cuddliness/Affiliation, Duration of Orienting, and Soothability). This parent-report measure of infant temperament has been translated into multiple languages, with reliability and validity of the IBQ-R demonstrated for US and Russian samples [13,17,27]. For example, the 14 IBQ-R fine-grained scales have been shown to have satisfactory internal consistency across different age groups, with Cronbach's alphas ranging from .70 to .90.…”

“…More recently, a number of differences between Russian and US infants have been reported, including differences in attributes associated with regulatory functioning, with Russian infants exhibiting lower levels of these characteristics. Russian mothers reported fewer expressions of attributes linked with Positive Affectivity/Surgency, and higher levels of Negative Emotionality in infancy, compared to their US counterparts [17].…”

Early Markers of Language and Attention: Mutual Contributions and the Impact of Parent–Infant Interactions

“…The Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R) [9] The IBQ-R represents a rationally derived, fine-grained assessment tool, based on the definition of temperament proposed by Rothbart and Derryberry, work with the Child Behavior Questionnaire, comparative studies, as well as other developmental research that had identified significant dimensions and associated behavioral tendencies [37,38]. This 191 item parent-report instrument yields 14 [9,39,40].…”

“…This 191 item parent-report instrument yields 14 [9,39,40]. Duration of Orienting and Perceptual Sensitivity were utilized as indices of attention in this study, producing Chronbach's Alphas of 0.78 and 0.74, respectively.…”