Temperament in Australian infants

A convenience sample of 240 infants aged 4-8 months was studied to evaluate the suitability of a revised version of Carey's Infant Temperament Questionnaire (ITQ) for an Australian population. Data analyses indicated all item/dimension correlations significant at P less than 0.01 or better, satisfactory internal consistency of the instrument as measured by alpha coefficients, and test retest reliability of 0.79. Infants rated as having a 'difficult' temperament were significantly more likely to be reported as having problem behaviours. Significant differences were found between Australian and American infants on three of the nine temperament dimensions - rhythmicity, activity and intensity. The results of this study indicate that this revised ITQ is suitable for use with Australian infants.