Behaviour: Can childhood temperament
be predicted in newborns?
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SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Embargo
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London: Thursday 25 June 2015 14:00 (BST)
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New York: Thursday 25 June 2015 09:00 (EDT)
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Tokyo: Thursday 25 June 2015 22:00 (JST)
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Sydney: Thursday 25 June 2015 23:00 (AEST)
Different patterns of visual attention in new-born babies may be associated with variations in
temperament and behaviour in later childhood, suggests a study in Scientific Reports this week.
The findings indicate that the development of behavioural difficulties later in childhood may be
partly explained by behaviours already present within a few days after birth, although moredetailed studies are required before firm conclusions can be drawn.
Recent research in infants aged between four and ten months has linked the increased ability to
hold visual fixations to stimuli with better control of behaviour and reduced restlessness,
hyperactivity and inattention. In collaboration, the team of authors demonstrate that a link
between visual attention and variation in such behaviours may be evident even earlier. They
measured dwell time (the duration of a gaze on an individual stimulus) in 80 new-born babies
aged 1–4 days old and performed a follow-up analysis of parent-completed questionnaires about
their children’s behaviour and temperament at 5–9 years old.
The authors note that their study has some limitations, such as the method used to measure
visual attention (they chose to assess dwell time because measuring fixation is challenging in
new-borns) and suggest higher-resolution measurements could improve future investigations of
the associations that they have identified. They also suggest that parents’ reports of their
children’s behaviour and temperament may include some biases, which could be addressed by
collecting a range of different measurements of behaviour.
Article and author details
1. Individual Differences in Newborn Visual Attention Associate
with Temperament and Behavioral Difficulties in Later
Childhood
Corresponding Authors
Angelica Ronald
Birkbeck University of London, London, United Kingdom
Email: a.ronald@bbk.ac.uk, Tel: +44 7958 522942
Kostas A. Papageorgiou
London Metropolitan University, London, United Kingdom
Email: k.papageorgiou@londonmet.ac.uk, Tel: + 44 7748 699138
DOI
10.1038/srep11264
Online paper*
http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/srep11264
* Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).
Geographical listings of authors
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Italy
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& United Kingdom