Parents' expectations and perceptions of infant temperament: “Pregnancy status” differences

It is shown that parity and childbirth experience affect parents' expectations and perceptions of infant temperament and, for the multiparous parents, in the prenatal to postpartum comparisons.

Abstract

At approximately 16 weeks of pregnancy, 41 couples (14 primiparous and 27 multiparous, 13 of whom anticipated a cesarean delivery) completed Bates, Freeland, and Lounsbury's (1979) Infant Characteristic Questionnaire (ICQ), modified to ask about expectations of infant characteristics. Significant group differences were found in three of the four ICQ factors. The multiparous parents expecting a vaginal delivery had the lowest scores, indicating expectations of temperamentally "more optimal" babies. A similar pattern of results was obtained from late pregnancy and 3–4 months postpartum administrations of the ICQ. In general, factor scores of the primiparous and cesarean parents did not differ. Significant correlations were obtained in comparisons of the scores from the two prenatal administrations and, for the multiparous parents, in the prenatal to postpartum comparisons. The results indicate that parity and childbirth experience affect parents' expectations and perceptions of infant temperament.