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Temperament moderates the effects of early deprivation on infant attention

Zeynep Ertekin1, Megan R Gunnar2, Sibel K Berument1

  • 1Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
|March 9, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Children’s temperament influences how early adversity affects attention. Infants with lower falling reactivity showed better attention in families but worse in institutions, supporting differential susceptibility.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Child Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Institutional care is linked to increased attention problems in children.
  • Individual differences in sensitivity to environmental influences exist.
  • Temperament, specifically falling reactivity, may moderate these effects.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the moderating role of temperament (falling reactivity) in the relationship between early adversity and attention skills in infants.
  • To test the differential susceptibility theory in the context of institutional care versus family rearing.

Main Methods:

  • Recruited 6- to 15-month-old infants from institutions (n=63) and low socioeconomic family environments (n=59).
  • Assessed infant attention skills by measuring duration of visual attention to toys.
  • Measured infant temperament using the falling reactivity/rate of recovery from distress subscale of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire.

Main Results:

  • Infants with lower falling reactivity demonstrated better attention skills in family settings.
  • Conversely, infants with lower falling reactivity exhibited poorer attention skills in institutional settings.
  • Infants with higher falling reactivity showed no significant impact on attention skills regardless of the environment.

Conclusions:

  • Temperament, specifically falling reactivity, moderates the impact of early adversity on infant attention skills.
  • Findings support the differential susceptibility theory, indicating some children are more sensitive to environmental conditions.
  • Early environment and individual temperament interact to shape attention development in infants.

Keywords:
attention skillsdifferential susceptibilityearly deprivationinstitutional caretemperament

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