Mother's representation of her infant and infant's temperament rating.
Item
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Title
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Mother's representation of her infant and infant's temperament rating.
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Identifier
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AAI9130387
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identifier
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9130387
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Creator
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Williams, Trudy B.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Dalton Miller-Jones
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Developmental | Psychology, Clinical
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Abstract
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The intent of this research is to contribute to the current reformulation of infant developmental theory in terms of the role of mother's representation of the infant within the mother-infant system. This study examined the relationship between mother's representation of her infant and infant temperament rating. Thirty-eight middle-class primiparous mother-infant dyads were studied longitudinally: data gathered consisted of measures of maternal representation and infant temperament rating at 6 weeks, 4 months and 12 months. Scores for maternal representation were obtained for each of the three time periods by judges' ratings of clinical interviews, which included mothers' descriptions of their infants with specific examples. Infant temperament rating was determined by use of the Revised Infant Temperament Scale (Carey & McDevitt, 1978) or the Toddler Temperament Scale (Fullard, McDevitt, & Carey, 1984) at each of the three time periods.;Using a multiple regression analysis, scores for maternal representation and infant temperament rating were assessed for their predictive power relative to each other at each of the three time periods as well as between time periods. Results provide support for the hypothesis that mother's representation of the infant predicts infant temperament rating at succeeding time periods. These findings offer empirical support for the explanatory power of maternal representation of the infant as a critical factor in infant behavior; specifically, that the infant's temperament rating viewed by temperament theory as either innate or interactively determined, may be interpreted as reflecting the impact of mother's representation on infant behavior.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
