Developmental Psychology Copyright 1991 by the American Psychological Association Inc.

1991. Vol. 27, No. 3,421-431 0012-1649/91/$3.00

Continuity and Discontinuity in Infant Negative and Positive Emotionality:

Family Antecedents and Attachment Consequences
Jay Belsky and Margaret Fish
Pennsylvania State University
Russell Isabella
University of Utah

This study was based on the premise that much of the instability evident in research on infant
emotionality/temperament is a function not so much of measurement error (as typically presumed)
but lawful discontinuity. Infants who changed from high to low and from low to high levels of
negative or positive emotionality between 3 and 9 months of age were compared with infants who
remained stable during the period on distal measures of the family environment (prenatally and
neonatally measured) and proximal measures of parent-infant interaction (3 months) thought to
account for stability and change in infant emotionality and on 1-year infant-mother attachment
security. Results revealed more success in forecasting stability and change in negative emotionality
than positive emotionality; maternal personality and marital factors and mother-infant interaction
accounted for why infants highly negative at 3 months changed, and comparable father factors and
processes accounted for why infants initially low in negativity changed. Attachment-related analy-
ses revealed change in positive emotionality to be more related to 1-year security than change in
negative emotionality, but it was also the case that continuity and discontinuity in both positivity
and negativity interacted to forecast attachment security.

Individual differences in temperament, that is, variation in
behavioral style thought to influence children's interactions
with their environments, has been a fertile area of investigation
for more than three decades (Campos, Barrett, Lamb, Gold-
smith. & Stenberg, 1983). Despite a continued lack of consensus
on denning dimensions of individuality (Bates, 1987; Gold-
smith & Campos, 1986), the expression of emotionality plays a
prominent role in all current conceptualizations of tempera-
ment. Meta-analysis of parent-report measures (Goldsmith &
Rieser-Danner, 1986) suggests that the two temperamental di-
mensions that most often show stability are activity level and
some manifestation of negative affect (i.e., either irritability/dif-
ficulty or fear/withdrawal). Of these two dimensions, negative
emotionality has been the focus of more study; attention to
difficult temperament and its possible links to subsequent prob-
lematic behavior and parent-child relationships have domi-
nated research in infant temperament since the original publi-
cations of Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1968).
Like the other dimensions of temperament (Bates, 1987), dif-
ficultness has been denned in various ways by investigators.
Thomas et al. (1968) originally characterized as difficult those
children who withdraw from new experiences, adapt slowly,
have irregular biological functions and intense emotional reac-
Work on this article was supported by National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development Grant RO1HD15496 and National
Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Development Award
K02MH00486 to Jay Belsky.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed lo Jay
Belsky, College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802.
tions, and are negative in mood. Buss and Plomin (1975,1984)
denned their emotionality dimension in terms of strong
arousal and negative affect, whereas Bates (1987) specified cry-
ing and social demandingness as the denning features of diffi-
cult temperament. Researchers who tried to measure tempera-
ment by means of naturalistic observations tended to focus on
irritability (i.e., fuss/cry behavior; Belsky, Rovine, & Taylor,
1984; Crockenberg & Smith, 1982). The common element in
these approaches, whether focused on difficulty, emotionality,
or irritability, is that they share a concern for the expression of
negative emotion.
A major empirical issue in research on infant temperament
concerns the stability of individual differences (Bates, 1987).
Not surprisingly, the degree of continuity that characterizes tem-
perament during infancy appears to vary according to the di-
mension examined and the measurement approach used.
Greater stability has been found for aggregated scores, particu-
larly those reflecting difficultness (Belsky, Rovine, & Fish,
1989; Lee & Bates, 1985) or emotionality (Matheny, Riese, &
Wilson, 1985; Riese, 1987), and for parent-report question-
naires (as opposed to behavioral observations; Belsky et al.,
1989; Isabella, Ward, & Belsky, 1985; Pettit & Bates, 1984).
In considering the stability of individual differences in tem-
perament, it must be acknowledged that even when stability
coefficients achieve conventional levels of significance, there
remains noteworthy instability of individual rankings. Lee and
Bates (1985) observed, for example, that the continuity of classi-
fication of a child in their sample as temperamentally difficult,
although significant, was only about 50% from 6 to 24 months,
and other researchers reported similar findings (McNeil &
Persson-Blennow, 1982). Consider in this regard the .37 (p <

421
422 J. BELSKY, M. FISH, AND R. ISABELLA
.05) stability coefficient that Matheny, Wilson, and Nuss (1984)
generated when composite measures of tractability at 12 and 18
months were correlated in one of the best efforts to date to
create a multimeasure index of temperament based on infant
behavior observed in the laboratory under controlled condi-
tions. It is findings such as these, which are quite representative
of those reported in the literature, that lead us to take issue with
Campos, Campos, and Barrett's (1989, p. 400) recent statement
that "the conclusion is clear that irritability and negative emo-
tionality show impressive continuity throughout infancy and
early childhood" (emphasis added).
Several explanations have been advanced to account for what
can best be described as modest stability of individual differ-
ences in infant negative emotionality, particularly in the first
year of life. These include problems in conceptualizing and
measuring infant temperament (Hubert, Wachs, Peters-Martin,
& Gandour, 1982) and stage-determined changes in the expres-
sion of temperament (Riese, 1987). Another possibility is that
negative emotionality may simply be unstable. Indeed modest
stability coefficients may reflect the fact that while some chil-
dren remain high or low over time on a particular dimension of
temperament, others change on that same dimension. To the
extent that the nature of the care that the child experiences in
the family accounts for such variability, as Crockenberg (1986)
suggested, it seems appropriate to speak in terms of lawful
discontinuity rather than to presume that instability is exclu-
sively a function of measurement error (Belsky & Pensky, 1988).
The identification of family conditions associated with conti-
nuity and discontinuity poses an important challenge for devel-
opmental theory and research. As Thomas (1984) noted some
time ago, "rather than the simple question of whether tempera-
ment is or is not consistent over time, the more significant issue
would appear to be the identification of the factors which may
influence continuity or discontinuity" (p. 105). This point was
reiterated recently by Coll and her colleagues (1989), who, on
finding modest stability between 3 and 7-months in infant nega-
tive and positive emotionality, highlighted "the need to investi-
gate. . . the determinants of change in temperamental charac-
teristics over time1' (p. 6). Despite the theoretical and practical
importance of understanding why sameness characterizes the
emotional proclivities of some infants, whereas change charac-
terizes that of others, it is surprising how little research on this
topic has been performed, particularly in view of the extensive
work focused on stability. As Clarke-Stewart (1988) recently
noted, "for most contemporary researchers who have studied
temperament. . . this [stability] is all that matters" (p. 48).
Particularly interesting, therefore, are the rather consistent
findings that emerge from the few investigations that have
sought to illuminate the conditions of continuity and disconti-
nuity in infant negative emotionality The most systematic and
extensive research is that of Matheny (1986), which indicates
that even though temperament was significantly stable from 12
to 24 months, infants who became less negative, more attentive,
and more socially oriented (i.e., more tractable) had mothers
who were more expressive and involved with them and came
from families that were more emotionally cohesive. Similarly,
Washington. Minde, and Goldberg (1986) found that preterm
babies who became less difficult over time had mothers who
were more sensitive to their needs than were mothers whose
premature infants became more difficult. Finally, Engfer(1986)
reported that German mothers who perceived their infants as
becoming more difficult between 4 and 18 months experienced
more marital problems and were judged less sensitive in their
mothering, whereas mothers who described their infants as be-
coming less difficult were more relaxed and optimistic and less
irritable. Of course, the infant's capacity to regulate his or her
negative emotionality—with or without parental and family
support—will also influence parental and family functioning.
Thus, even though these studies highlight the role of parent
factors and family processes in aifecting infant emotionality, we
should not lose sight of the effect of the changing infant on the
family
Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that findings from all these
studies suggest that, under conditions of general family stress,
the quality of maternal care deteriorates (Belsky, 1984) and, as a
result, so does the infant's capacity to regulate his or her nega-
tive emotionality. Conversely, when marital and general family
processes promote maternal sensitivity, this serves to facilitate
the self-regulatory capacity of the infant and leads to positive
change in negative emotionality. This conclusion, like the find-
ings on which it is based, is consistent with the view of Ains-
worth and other attachment researchers that quality of mater-
nal care influences infant crying (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, &
Wall, 1978).
Although not extensive, the evidence reviewed clearly impli-
cates parental personality and marital quality as distal condi-
tions and parent-infant interactions as more proximal condi-
tions of continuity and discontinuity in infant negative emo-
tionality A primary purpose of the current investigation is to
extend work in this area by examining not only such distal and
proximal conditions that seem to play a role in accounting for
why some infants evince high or low negativity over time
whereas others change, but also to examine father factors as well
as mother factors. The general hypothesis guiding this inquiry
is that negative emotionality will decrease over time when par-
ents are psychologically healthy, are involved in satisfying
marriages, and interact with their infants in a sensitive, support-
ive manner, whereas negative emotionality will increase over
time when the opposite conditions exist.
This report also seeks to extend research by considering the
conditions of continuity and discontinuity in positive emotion-
ality/social responsiveness as well as the more extensively inves-
tigated negative emotionality. The importance of focusing on
positive affect and social orientation as a separate and distinct
dimension of individuality is suggested by a growing body of
evidence that indicates, at least in the case of adults, that this
dimension of affective functioning is independent of negative
emotionality at both the state (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1969;
McCrae & Costa, 1984) and trait (Watson & Clark, 1984; Wat-
son, Clark, & Tellegan, 1988; Watson & Tellegan, 1985) levels,
and that, in the case of infants, different hemispheres of the
brain are responsible for processing positive and negative affec-
tive experience (Fox & Davidson, 1988). A further impetus for
studying positive emotionality derives from recent research in-
dicating that low sociability and decline in the expression of
positive affect over the first year arc associated with increased
risk of insecure infant-mother attachment (Bates, Maslin, &
Frankel, 1985; Malatesta, Culver, Tesman, & Shepard, 1989;
 CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY IN INFANT EMOTIONALITY
Wille, 1989). It is just such evidence that leads us to examine
relations between infant-mother attachment security and conti-
nuity and discontinuity in infant positive emotionality and nega-
tive emotionality. A general hypothesis guiding our inquiry is
that risk of insecure attachment will increase when infants re-
main high in negative emotionality or change from low to high
or remain low in positive emotionality or change from high to
low. In other words, insecure attachment to mother is expected
to be associated with stable high or increasing levels of negativ-
ity over time or with stable low or decreasing levels of positivity.
To address the issues raised, we relied on data collected dur-
ing the course of a multicohort longitudinal study of infant and
family development. Observational and parent-report indexes
of positive and negative emotionality were used to create com-
posite measures of these constructs when infants are 3 and 9
months of age, so that four groups of infants were constituted
with respect to each dimension of emotionality: subjects who
scored high or low at both times of measurement (high-high,
low-low) and those that changed (high-low, low-high). Work-
ing with such groups, we specifically sought to determine why
infants who look similar in terms of their expressed emotiona-
lity early in the first year look decidedly different 6 months
later. Thus, we compared infants who, at 3 and 9 months, scored
high on the dimension of emotionality in question (negativity,
positivity) with infants who changed from high to low across the
6-month period (HH vs. HL) and infants who remained low
over time with those who changed from low to high (LL vs.
LH). The first set of comparisons to be made involved distal
factors measured prenatally (parent personality, marital qual-
ity) and neonatally (newborn behavior, gender), whereas the sec-
ond set focused on proximal processes of mother-infant and
father-infant interaction measured during the course of dyadic
(mother-infant) and triadic (mother-father-infant) home obser-
vations when infants were 3 months of age and thus before any
change in measured positive and negative emotionality. It
should be noted that analyses of data collected at 3 months is
dictated principally by the design of our longitudinal study
rather than by any presumption that this is a point of particular
plasticity in emotionality. As a final set of analyses, groups that
changed or stayed the same with respect to positive and negative
emotionality are compared in terms of attachment security In
this way, we sought to illuminate both the family antecedents
and attachment consequences of continuity and discontinuity
in infant negative and positive emotionality.
Method
Subjects
The subjects of this investigation were 148firstborninfants (88 boys
and 60 girls) and their parents participating in the second and third
cohorts of the Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project
(Belsky, Gilstrap, & Rovine, 1984; Belsky et al., 1989). Parents-to-be
were recruited to participate in this longitudinal study during the last
trimester of pregnancy, and families were studied intensively through
the infant's first year of life. All parents were White, predominantly of
middle- and working-class socioeconomic status. At time of enroll-
ment, average family income was $24,500 (range - $13,OOO-$80,0O0)
and couples had been married an average of 3.8 years (range = <1-13).
The mean ages of husbands and wives, respectively, were 28.7 years
423
(range = 18-41 years) and 26.8 years (range = 18-35 years); and the two
spouses averaged 16.3 (range = 10-22 years) and 15.1 years (range =
12-21 years) of education, respectively.
Design and Procedures
As part of the Infant and Family Development Project's longitudinal
study of marriage, parenting, and infant development, data were gath-
ered at several points in time, beginning in the last trimester of preg-
nancy and continuing through the child's first birthday (Belsky, Gil-
strap, et al., 1984; Belsky et al., 1989). This report uses data collected at
several points in time. Information on so-called distal conditions of
continuity and discontinuity in infant emotionality, including data on
parent personality and marital quality, was obtained during the last
trimester of pregnancy and during the first 10 days of the infant's life
(Brazelton Behavioral Assessments). Information on proximal condi-
tions of continuity and discontinuity, namely that pertaining to actual
experiences that infants had with their parents, was obtained during
two separate, 1-hr naturalistic home observations of mother-infant
and mother-father-infant interactions performed when infants were 3
months of age. Information on the consequences of continuity and
discontinuity in emotionality, specifically security of infant-mother
attachment, was obtained during strange-situation assessments when
infants were 12 months of age. Finally, home observational data and
maternal report data obtained when infants were 3 months and 9
months of age were used to define high and low negative- and positive-
emotionality groups at each time of measurement.
Measuring Continuity and Discontinuity in Emotionality
High and low negative- and positive-emotionality groups of infants
at 3 months and 9 months of age were identified by rescaling and
aggregating three different sources of information relevant to negative
and to positive emotionality at each time of measurement. For pur-
poses of assessing negative emotionality, we relied on (a) scores of the
number of 15-s intervals that infants cried during the 1-hr observation
of the mother-infant dyad (Belsky, Taylor, & Rovine, 1984; Isabella,
Belsky, & von Eye, 1989), (b) scores of the numberof 15-s intervals that
infants cried during the 1-hour observation of the mother-father-in-
fant triad (Belsky, Gilstrap, et al., 1984; Belsky et al., 1989), and (c) the
fussy/difficult subscale from the Infant Characteristics Questionnaire
(Bates, Freeland, & Lounsbury, 1979), which mothers completed when
infants were 3 months and 9 months of age. These independent indica-
tors were, as expected, only moderately positively correlated (mean
r=.28).
For purposes of assessing positive emotionality/social responsive-
ness, we relied on observational scores reflecting (a) the number of 15-s
intervals in which infants vocalized during the mother-infant dyadic
observation, (b) the number of intervals infants smiled, laughed, or
evinced excitement in some other way during the mother-father-infant
triadic observation, and (c) a summary of four items taken from the
Infant Characteristics Questionnaire that explicitly tapped positive
emotionality/social responsiveness ("How much does your baby smile
and make happy sounds?"; "How much does your baby enjoy playing
little games with you?"; "How excited does your baby become when
people play with or talk to him?7'; and "What kind of mood is your baby
generally in?"). These three component indicators were also only mod-
estly positively correlated with one another (mean r = .24). They were
composited to create an aggregate index of positive emotionality/social
responsiveness in light research on both infants (Bates et al., 1985) and
adults (McCrae & Costa, 1984), indicating that positive emotionality
and social responsiveness are positively correlated. As anticipated, the
negative and positive aggregated scores were independent of each other
at both 3 months (r = . 10, ns) and 9 months (r = -.09, ns). The negative-
424 I BELSKY, M. FISH, AND R. ISABELLA
affect composite demonstrated only modest stability across this 6-
month period (r = .21, p < .01), whereas the positive-affect composite
was not stable from 3 to 9 months (r = .09, ns).1
As a second step toward creating high and low negative- and positive-
emotionality subgroups at 3 months and 9 months, each of the three
negative- and three positive-emotionality component scores was di-
vided in thirds and rescored 0, 1, and 2 to reflect low. medium, and
high levels, respectively, of the emotionality dimension in question.
The three negative-emotionality items and the three positive-emotion-
ality items were then separately summed to create composite negative-
and positive-emotionality scores, each of which could range from 0 to 6
at each time of measurement. This was done for two reasons: (a) to
ensure that the two observational and single maternal-report compo-
nents that made up each aggregate measure contributed equally to the
final aggregate score, and (b) to facilitate categorization of infants into
high- and low-emotionality subgroups. It is noteworthy that rescaling
had little effect on the stability of negative emotionality (r =. 19, p < .05)
but increased to a significant degree the stability of positive emotiona-
lity (r = .26, p < .001). Even with rescaling, the positive- and negative-
emotionality composites remained unrelated at3 months(r= -.13)and
9 months (r= .16).
Infants whose rescaled composite scores at 3 months or 9 months fell
into the 0 to 2 range were classified as low on the dimension of emo-
tionality in question, whereas those whose scores fell in the 4 to 6 range
were classified as high on that dimension. All subjects who received
intermediate composite scores of 3 at either 3 months or 9 months were
excluded from analysis (36% negative emotionality, 36% positive emo-
tionality). This was done for two reasons: (a) to decrease the likelihood
that a child who was low or high in the emotionality dimension would
be erroneously subgrouped because she or he fell at or near the mid-
point of the distribution, and (b) to amplify what were expected to be
weak or modest effects.
Once infants were classified at each time of measurement, the 3-
month and 9-month classifications on a particular dimension of emo-
tionality were cross-classified to identify stable high (HH) and stable
low (LL) groups and groups that changed from high to low (HL) and
from low to high (LH). In the case of negative emotionality, this proce-
dure resulted in 33 HH subjects, 26 LLsubjects, 19 HLsubjects, and 16
LH subjects. The numberof positive-emotionality subjects were 29,29,
19, and 19, respectively.
Measuring Family Antecedents of Continuity and
Discontinuity
Two types of measurements were conceptualized as potential family
antecedents of continuity and discontinuity for purposes of this inves-
tigation. Distal factors were indexes of parental personality and mari-
tal quality obtained before the infant's birth as well as infant genderand
assessments of neonatal functioning. Proximal processes were mea-
sures of mother-infant and father-infant interaction obtained during
the 3-month home observations of the mother-infant dyad and the
mother-father-infant triad.
Distal factors. As part of a lengthy questionnaire completed by each
parent in the last trimester of pregnancy, assessments of personality
and marital quality were obtained. Specifically, each parent completed
the Interpersonal Affect Scale (assessing orientation toward the feel-
ings of others), the Self-Esteem scale from the Jackson {1976) Personal-
ity Inventory, and the Ego Strength scale (assessingemotional maturity
andflexibility)from theCattell 16PF (Cattell, Eber, & Tatsuoka, 1970).
These scales were selected for inclusion in the longitudinal study be-
cause of their presumed relevance to relationship functioning and their
documented reliability and validity. As a result of scoring conventions,
low scores reflect psychologically healthier functioning.
On the basis of prior factor analyses (Isabella & Belsky, 1985), four
subscales derived from Braiker and Kelley's (1979) questionnaire as-
sessing intimate relations were composited to create measures of posi-
tive (love and maintenance) and negative (conflict and ambivalence)
marital activities and sentiments. Past analyses of these measures re-
veal them to be internally consistent, sensitive to stability and change
in marital quality across the transition to parenthood (Belsky et al.,
1989), and related to infant-mother attachment security (Belsky et al.,
1989; Isabella & Belsky, 1985) and parent and child behavior when
children are 3 years of age (Belsky, Youngblade, Rovine, & Volling, in
press).2
Within the first 10 days of the infant's birth, each child was assessed
by a trained examiner on the Brazelton (1973) Neonatal Behavioral
Assessment Scale (NBAS). Items were composited according to con-
ventions proposed by Jacobson, Fein, Jacobson, and Schwartz (1984)
to create measures of orientation, autonomic stability, range of state,
regulation of state, and motor maturity (for details, see Belsky & Ro-
vine, 1987). To reduce the number of variables subject to analysis, these
measures were composited to create a total score reflecting the behav-
ioral integrity of the organism.3
Proximal Processes
The two 1-hr home observations conducted at 3 months provided
several indexes of parent-infant interaction used in this study. Mea-
sures obtained from the dyadic and triadic observations were totally
different because these two home observations used entirely different
behavior-recording systems. In particular, the triadic system was far
more molar and less microanalytic because it was designed to capture
interaction in three separate dyads—mother-infant, father-infant, and
husband-wife (Belsky, Gilstrap, & Rovine, 1984)—rather than in a sin-
gle one (i.e., mother-infant).
With respect to the measurement of mother-infant interaction in the
dyadic observations, we relied on a procedure outlined in detail by
1
The limited stability of positive emotionality did not derive from
including emotion and social responsivity components in the compos-
ite.
2
In view of the fact that the same mothers/wives who completed the
infant temperament report at 3 months and 9 months, which contrib-
uted to the creation of positive and negative emotionality scores, also
completed personality and marital scales, which will be used to distin-
guish emotionality groups, it was necessary to determine whether
these two sets of maternal reports were related. To the extent that they
were then, any capacity of the wife personality and marriage scales to
distinguish the emotionality groups might simply be a function of the
fact that the same individual contributed to the measurement of inde-
pendent and dependent variables in a particular analysis. This turned
out not to be a concern, because the maternal report scores of infant
fussy/difficult and social responsiveness at both 3 months and 9
months were unrelated to the three personality and two marital mea-
sures obtained prenatally (mean r= .04; range = -.07-16).
3
Following the scoring conventions of Jacobson et al. (1984), high
scores on the orientation, autonomic-stability, regulation-of-state, and
motor-maturity dimensions indicate more optimal newborn function-
ing, whereas a high score on range of state reflects high irritability,
arousal, and slate lability. Therefore, to create a composite score indi-
cating well-functioning neonatal behavior, the first four dimensions
were added and the range-of-state score subtracted from the sum. Once
analyses reported in this article were completed, the newborn compos-
ite was decomposed to determine whether results would be different
using individual component scores. In no case did individual dimen-
sion scores prove to discriminate between groups that changed and
that remained the same in negative or positive emotionality.
 CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY IN INFANT EMOTIONALITY
Isabella et al. (1989) and derived from theory and research highlighting
the role of sensitive, harmonious, and appropriately responsive interac-
tions in promoting attachment security (e.g., Ainsworth et al., 1978;
Belsky, Rovine, & Taylor, 1984; Smith & Pedersen, 1988). Mother and
infant behaviors recorded as present (vs. absent) within continuous 15-s
sampling intervals were recoded such that every 15-s episode within
the 1-hr observation was represented by a cross-classification of 11
infant behaviors (vertical axis) and 12 maternal behaviors (horizontal
axis) in a contingency table. Thereafter, each co-occurrence within a
15-s sampling period was judged a priori as reflecting either sensitive/
complimentary, insensitive/poorly coordinated, or neutral (i.e., neither
sensitive nor insensitive) exchanges.
In general, the 31 co-occurrences characterized as sensitive/compli-
mentary were those in which the behavior displayed by both members
of the dyad reflected an obvious exchange of behaviors (e.g., mother
stimulate-baby response/explore) or the behavior of at least one
member of the dyad was judged as being appropriately responsive to
the behavior of the other (e.g., infant fuss/cry-mother soothe). The 31
co-occurrences characterized as insensitive-poorly coordinated were
those in which one member of the dyad engaged in behavior that either
was not responded to by the other (e.g., infant fuss/cry-mother attend
to the infant) or was enjoined by behavior of the other member so that
the combination of behaviors was not considered representative of a
mutual and reciprocal exchange (e.g., infant fuss/cry-mother stimu-
late). (Note that of the 70 co-occurrences not accounted for by this
delineation, 21 were classified as neutral [e.g., infant explore-mother
leisure]; the remaining 49, by definition, could not occur [e.g., infant
sleep-mother responsively vocalize; infant explore-mother soothe].)
The a priori judgments guiding this characterization of interaction
were theoretically based, and the utility of this scoring system in distin-
guishing the interactional histories of secure and insecure dyads has
been demonstrated (Isabella, et al., 1989) and replicated (Isabella &
Belsky, 1990): Dyads subsequently classified as securely attached in the
strange situation are disproportionately likely to experience harmoni-
ous, complimentary, and appropriately responsive exchanges, whereas
those classified as insecure are disproportionately likely to experience
unresponsive and poorly coordinated interactions.
In addition to the measurements derived from the observations of
the mother-infant dyad, summary mother-infant and father-infant en-
gagement scores obtained during the observations of the mother-
father-infant triad also were used in this study. At the end of each 15-s
sampling period during these observations, mother-infant and father-
infant interactions were rated on a 4-point scale {0 = no interaction; 3 =
intense, reciprocal exchange; for further details, see Belsky, Gilstrap, &
Rovine, 1984). Ratings per sampling period were summed to create
total engagement scores. Previous publications reveal that these rat-
ings were made reliably, and that they are sensitive to differences in
maternal and paternal involvement and to changes in infant develop-
ment (Belsky, Gilstrap, & Rovine, 1984; Belsky et al., 1989)."
Consequences of Continuity/Discontinuity in
Emotionality
Assessments of security of infant-mother attachment obtained
when infants were 1 year of age were available as part of the longitu-
dinal study. The standard strange situation (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969)
was used, and well-trained, reliable coders classified attachment rela-
tionships as secure or insecure using standard scoring conventions (for
additional details, see Belsky & Rovine, 1987).
Results
The first set of analyses examines the family antecedents of
continuity and discontinuity in negative emotionality with re-
425
gard to both distal factors and proximal processes. The second
set of analyses addresses the same issue with respect to positive
emotionality. Because the principal focus of this inquiry was to
determine why infants who looked similar in their expressed
emotionality (positive or negative) at 3 months looked different
at 9 months, comparisons were made (a) between groups that
started high and remained high (HH) or changed to low (HL),
and (b) between groups that started low and remained low (LL)
or changed to high (LH). The third and final set of analyses
examines the relation between attachment security and continu-
ity and discontinuity in negative and positive emotionality.
Family Antecedents of Continuity/Discontinuity in
Negative Emotionality
To examine the family antecedents of continuity and disconti-
nuity in negative emotionality, we proceeded in three steps with
respect to both the HH versus HL and LL versus LH compari-
sons. First, a discriminant function analysis was conducted to
determine how well the multivariate set of distal factors(person-
ality, marriage, and infant gender, but not NBAS scores because
of missing data on 41 subjects) collectively distinguished
groups.5 If groups that were compared could be reliably discrim-
inated at the multivariate level, we proceed in Step 2 of the
analysis to conduct univariate / tests comparing groups on all of
the distal factors (including NBAS scores). Finally, in the third
step of the analysis, groups were compared on the proximal
measures of sensitivity-complimentarity/insensitivity-poor co-
ordination in the mother-infant dyad and on mother-infant
and father-infant engagement from the two home observations
at 3 months of age. With only three proximal indexes of parent-
infant interaction and the need for repeated measures compari-
sons in the case of the triadic engagement scores, we opted for
univariate analyses. The multivariate, discriminant-function
4
Because these proximal indexes of parent-infant interaction and
the measures of crying and social responsiveness (which contributed to
the negativity and positivity composites) derived from the same sets of
observations, it was necessary to determine whether these two sets of
measures were related. To the extent that they were, it would confound
any possible interpretation that proximal interactional processes be-
tween parents and infants at 3 months contributed to stability and
change in infant emotionality from 3 months to 9 months. As it turned
out, this did not prove to be an empirical concern, because neither of
the engagement scores from the triadic observations or the harmony-
complementarity scores from the dyadic observation at 3 months were
significantly related to the observational indexes of crying and social
responsiveness, which contributed to the negative and positive emo-
tionality scores, respectively.
5
Discriminant-function analysis is a multivariate-data analytic tech-
nique that evaluates the extent to which a series of variables can be used
in combination to distinguish subjects' membership in different
groups. The method assesses the extent to which subjects assigned to
particular groups can be distinguished on the basis of the predictor
variables included in the analysis (hit rate). Huberty (1984) provided
formulas for determining the extent to which the percent correct classi-
fication achieved in the analysis is statistically reliable (z score) and the
extent to which it improves the rate of accurate prediction of group
classification beyond what would be expected by chance.
426 J. BELSK.Y, M. FISH, AND R. ISABELLA

approach was restricted to the distal antecedents because there 200 -T

were so many variables under consideration.
LL versus LH. The discriminant-function analysis revealed
that the husband and wife prenatal personality and marriage
LJJ
measures along with infant gender could be used to correctly CC 175 -.
classify 77.1% of the infants with low negative-emotionality o
o
scores at 3 months into groups showing low and high levels of V)
negative emotionality 6 months later (z = 2.83, p < .01). This isa
rate of classification 51 % greater than would be expected on the z
IU
basis of chance alone (Huberty, 1984). In the second step of the
S 150 --
analyses, follow-up / test to specify important discriminating LU
distal variables revealed that infants who changed from low to
C5 KSft
high negative emotionality between 3 and 9 months of age, in 2
comparison with those who remained low, had fathers who LJJ m
scored significantly poorer (i.e., had higher scores) on the prena- o 125 "•
tal measures of interpersonal affect (Ms = 31.13 vs. 26.92, / = o m
3.95, p < .001) and who were less positive about their marriages <
before the infant was born (Ms = 99.94 vs. 109.80, / - 2.10, p < Q
.05). Z 100 - •
<
The third step of the analyses of proximal interaction pro- LU
cesses revealed that even though the LL and LH groups did not
differ with regard to interactions during the mother-infant dy- •;•••'•'
!£•"•••

adic observation (i.e., harmony-complimentary), they did differ

in terms of mother-infant and father-infant engagement in the
triadic observation. A 2 X 2 (Parent X Group [LL vs. LH])
analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that whereas mothers
and fathers in the LL group were equally involved with their
3-month-old babies, fathers were less involved than mothers in
the LH group. Parent x Group interaction, F(l, 40) ^ 3.29, p <
.08. This pattern offindingsis graphically depicted in Figure 1.
In summary, compared with babies who remained low in
negative emotionality, infants who changed from low to high
negative emotionality between 3 and 9 months had fathers who
were less affectively oriented toward others (interpersonal af-
fect), less positive about their marriages even before their in-
fants were born, and less involved, relative to their wives, with
their 3-month-old infants.
HH versus HL. The results of the discriminant-function
analysis showed that the prenatal personality and marital mea-
sures and infant gender could be used to correctly classify
78.4% of the infants who had high negative-emotionality scores
at 3 months into groups with high or low negative emotionality
at 9 months (z = 3.46, p < .001). This is a rate of classification
52.8% higher than would be expected on the basis of chance
alone (Huberty; 1984). Univariate t tests of the prenatal person-
ality and marriage variables revealed that both mothers and
fathers of babies who changed from high to low negative emo-
tionality had better self-esteem (i.e., lower scores) than parents
of infants who continued to show high negative emotionality
(Ms of mothers = 26.26 vs. 29.58, t = 2.30, p < .05; Ms of
fathers = 25.53 vs. 27.85, / - 1.97, p < .05) and that mothers of
these changing infants experienced significantly less conflict
and ambivalence in their marriage prcnatally than did mothers
of infants who remained high in negative emotionality at 3 and
9 months (A/s - 26.26 vs. 31.39, /= 2.43, /?<.05).
Infant characteristics also distinguished these groups. Chi-
square analysis indicated that male infants were more likely to
remain high in negative emotionality (71.4%), whereas females
were marginally more likely to change from high to low (52.9%)
M F M F
Low-Low Low—High
Figure 1. Mean mother-infant (M)and father-infant (F) dyadic engage-
ment scores for negative-emotionality groups that remained low over
time (L-L) and changed from low to high (L-H).
between 3 and 9 months, x 2 0) = 2.93, p <. 10. Furthermore, the
total performance score on the NBAS marginally differentiated
infants who changed lo low negative emotionality from those
who stayed high (A/s = 2.381 vs.—1.916,/ = 1.96, p < .06); those
who remained high performed more poorly.
Analyses of the proximal measures of parent-infant interac-
tion during the home observations indicated similar patterns of
mother and father involvement for the two groups during the
triadic observation but significant differences in the mother-
infant dyadic observation. Specifically, mother-infant dyads in
the group that changed from high to low negative emotionality
showed greater than expected frequencies of complementary,
responsive, and sensitive interactions and fewer than expected
disharmonious, unresponsive, and poorly coordinated ex-
changes, whereas the reverse was true of dyads with infants who
remained highly distressed at both 3 and 9 months, x20) = 4.48,
p<.05. (SeeTable 1.)
Thus, comparisons of infants who were high in negative emo-
tionality at 3 months and remained high with those who
changed from high to low negativity revealed a far more system-
atic effect of mother and infant factors than those of the LL and
LH groups. Specifically, mothers of infants who changed from
high to low levels of negative emotionality, relative to those
whose infants remained high in negativity from 3 to 9 months,
had high self-esteem, experienced less negativity in their
marriages before their child's birth, and enjoyed relatively more
harmonious, responsive, and complementary interactions with
 CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY IN INFANT EMOTIONALITY
Table 1
Observed and (Expected) Frequency of Sensitive,
Complementary, Insensitive, and Poorly Coordinated
Mother-Infant Interaction at 3 Months for the High-High
and High-Low Negative-Emotionality Groups
Negative emotionality group
Mother-infant
interaction High-high High-low
Sensitive,
complementary 1,246(1,282) 817(781)
Insensitive,
poorly coordinated 1,964(1,928) 1,138(1,174)
Note. Values in parentheses represent total observed and expected
15-S sampling epochs (frequency), x2 (1, N = 52) = 4.48, p < .05.
their infants. Infants who changed from high to low negative
emotionality were more likely to be female and to evince more
behavioral integrity as newborns in comparison to those who
remained highly negative over time.
Conditions of Continuity and Discontinuity in Positive
Emotionality
Paralleling the analyses performed for negative emotionality,
comparisons were made between the LL and LH positive-emo-
tionality groups and between the HH and HL positive-emo-
tionality groups, first using the discriminant-function analysis,
which, if successful, was followed by univariate comparisons on
distal variables and on the proximal measures of parent-infant
interaction.
LL versus LH. Infants who changed from low positive emo-
tionality at 3 months to high positive emotionality at 9 months
could be reliably distinguished from those who remained low in
positive emotionality using the prenatal parent personality and
marriage measures and infant gender in the discriminant-func-
tion analysis (76.7% correct classification, z = 3.23, p < .001, a
rate 51.4% greater than that expected by chance; Huberty,
1984). However, univariate tests revealed no significant differ-
ences between the LL and LH groups with respect to individual
measures of prenatal parent personality or marriage, infant
gender, or newborn behavioral performance.
Proximal interaction at the two 3-month observations was
found to be different for these two groups of infants. In the case
of the triadic observation, a 2 X 2 (Parent X Group [LL vs. LH])
analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant main effect
for group, F(l, 46) = 5.26, p < .05; parents of infants who
changed from low to high positive emotionality were more in-
volved with their babies at 3 months of age than were parents of
infants who remained low in positive affect and social respon-
siveness (Ms — 159.03 vs. 126.84). Contrary to expectations,
however, interaction in the mother-infant dyad was more com-
plementary, responsive, and harmonious and less unresponsive
and poorly coordinated for infants who remained low in posi-
tive emotionality in contrast to those who changed from low to
high, x2(U = 6.17, p < .05. (See Table 2.)
In sum, although multiple distal factors collectively discrimi-
nated LL and LH positive-emotionality groups, no single mea-
427
sure significantly distinguished the groups at a univariate level.
Analyses of parent-infant interaction revealed, however, that
infants who changed to high positive emotionality at 9 months,
relative to those who remained low, experienced more parent
involvement during the 3-month triadic observation, but also
experienced a lower proportion than expected of responsive,
complementary, and harmonious interactions when observed
with just their mothers.
HH versus HL. Prenatal parent personality and marital
measures and infant gender did not result in a reliable discrimi-
nation of infants who remained high in positive emotionality
between 3 and 9 months from those who changed from high to
low during that time, nor did the measures of parent-infant
interaction prove to be different for the HH and HL groups.
Attachment Security and Continuity/Discontinuity in
Emotionality
To examine possible consequences of stability and change in
both negative and positive emotionality from 3 to 9 months, a
series of chi-square analyses were performed. First, separate
analyses were conducted to assess relations between continuity
and discontinuity in each emotional dimension and attachment
security at 12 months. In keeping with the prior analyses of
distal and proximal factors, analyses again involved separate
comparisons of LL and LH groups and of HH and HL groups.
Then the positive- and negative-emotionality groups were com-
bined to test the simultaneous influence of stability or change
in both emotional dimensions on infant-mother attachment
security.
Negative emotionality. Comparisons of neither LL and LH
groups nor HH and HL groups revealed associations between
continuity/discontinuity in negative emotionality and attach-
ment security. Thus, infant-mother attachment security proved
to be independent of whether an infant who was low or high in
negative emotionality at 3 months remained stable or changed
by 9 months.
Positive emotionality. Although the LL and LH groups did
not differ significantly in likelihood of being securely attached,
the HH and HL positive-emotionality groups did. Infants who
changed from high to low positive emotionality between 3 and 9
months were more likely to be classified as insecure at 12
Table 2
Observed and (Expected) Frequency of Sensitive,
Complementary, Insensitive, and Poorly Coordinated
Mother-Infant Interaction at 3 Months for the Low-Low
and Low-High Positive-Emotionality Groups
Positive emotionality group
Mother-infant
interaction Low-low Low-high
Sensitive,
complementary 860 (825) 485 (520)
Insensitive,
poorly coordinated 1,386(1,421) 932 (897)
Note. Values in parentheses represent total observed and expected
15-S sampling epochs (frequency). x 2 0 , # = 48) = 6.17, />< .05.
428 J. BELSKY, M. FISH, AND R. ISABELLA
months (57.9%) than infants who remained high in positive
emotionality (17.9%), x2(l) = 8.08, p < .004.
Negative and positive emotionality. To test the hypothesis
that stability or change in negative emotionality, although not
operating as a significant unique influence on attachment secu-
rity, might interact with stability/change in positive emotion-
ality to increase or decrease the risk of insecure attachment, a
cumulative-risk approach was adopted. More specifically, it was
hypothesized that risk for insecurity would be increased if nega-
tive emotionality scores remained high (HH) or changed from
low to high (LH)or if positive emotionality scores remained low
(LL) or changed from high to low (HL). Risk for insecurity was
presumed to be decreased if negative emotionality scores re-
mained low (LL) or changed from high to low (HL) or if positive
emotionality scores remained high (HH) or changed from low
to high (LH). Thus, for purposes of analysis, a risk score of 1
was assigned for group membership in the HH or LH negative-
emotionality groups and in the LL or HL positive-emotionality
groups, whereas a risk score of 0 was assigned for membership
in LL or HL negative-emotionality groups and in the HH or LH
positive-emotionality groups. As a result, cumulative-risk
scores of 0 (e.g., HL negative and HH positive), 1 (e.g., LH nega-
tive and HH positive), or 2 (e.g., LH negative and LL positive)
were assigned to each subject with complete data. When secu-
rity of attachment was examined as a function of cumulative
risk, a strong association was discerned, x2(2) = 10.42, p < .005.
As Table 3 indicates, 15/16 (94%) of the infants who had no risk
and 21/26 (81%) with a single risk were securely attached to
their mothers at 12 months, whereas only 47% of the infants
with two risks were so classified.
Discussion
Although several investigations indicate that negative emo-
tionality is significantly stable within the infancy years (Birns,
Barten, Bridger, 1969; Gunnar, Mangelsdorf, Larson, & Herts-
gaard, 1989; Matheny, Riese, & Wilson, 1985; Miyake, Chen, &
Campos, 1985; Riese, 1987), the degree of instability evident in
these studies and in the current research raises the possibility
that the rank ordering of infants on this dimension of individ-
uality changes a great deal across the first years of life. Indeed,
rather than assuming that the limited stability reported in most
Table 3
Attachment Security as a Function of Cumulative Risk
Associated With Stability and Change in Negative
and Positive Emotionality
12-month attachment
classification
Cumulative risk
Secure Insecure
15
21
Note. One point given for each of the following conditions: high-high
or low-high negative emotionality and low-low or high-low positive
emotionality, x2 (2, N = 59) = 10.42, p < .005.
work is a function of measurement error, the current investiga-
tion was based on the presumption, consistent with the theoriz-
ing of attachment researchers (e.g., Ainsworth et al., 1978), that
such instability reflects, to a significant and important extent,
lawful discontinuity (Belsky & Pensky, 1988).
Thus, by examining prenatal family factors and 3-month in-
teractional processes, we sought to illuminate conditions of dis-
continuity The fact that this inquiry focused on measurements
made prenatally and at 3 months in an effort to account for
change in emotionality from 3 to 9 months does not mean that
there is something critical about the infant's first 3 months or
about the 3- to 9-month period. In fact, given the stability of
many family factors and processes studied, all that the findings
indicate is that variables measured before any discerned change
enabled us to statistically account for change in emotionality.
Presumably, processes set in motion before 3 months continue
to exert an influence throughout the first year (and probably
beyond).
Before considering specific findings of this study, we should
note that the decision to restrict our focus to essentially the top
and bottom thirds of the sample with respect to the distribution
of negative- and positive-emotionality scores was based on two
premises. First, we presumed that differences within high and
low groups at each point in time could not necessarily be re-
garded as meaningful, and that an extreme-group approach
would reduce the likelihood that subjects would be mistakenly
classified as high or low on a particular emotionality dimen-
sion. Second, we presumed that extreme-group contrasts would
amplify what were expected to be modest effects. Needless to
say, such an approach limits the generalizability of the findings,
because the full distribution of scores was not subject to investi-
gation.
A variety of the results of our analyses were, in the main,
consistent with the limited findings available from the few
other pertinent studies that examined correlates of continuity/
discontinuity in infant negative emotionality (Engfer, 1986;
Matheny, 1986; Washington et al., 1986). The one major excep-
tion to this was the unanticipated discovery that harmonious,
complementary interactions were disproportionately charac-
teristic of the group that remained low in positive emotionality,
whereas the reverse was true in the case of infants who changed
from low to high positivity. Why this counterintuitive result
emerged remains unclear. Before we try to explain it, we would
like to see it replicated. Given the number of analyses run, it
may be that it is only a chance finding.
Beyond this singlefinding,the other significant results repeat-
edly indicated, as anticipated, that change to lower levels of
negative emotionality and to higher levels of positive emotiona-
lity was observed when parents (mothers or fathers) were psycho-
logically healthier (higher interpersonal affect or self esteem),
marriages were more positive or less negative, mother-infant
interaction patterns were more complementary and harmoni-
ous, or levels of mother-infant and father-infant engagement
were more equal or higher. In contrast, change to higher levels
of negative emotionality and to lower levels of positive emotion-
ality was associated with less optimal parent personality, mari-
tal characteristics, and interactional processes.
Beyond the general observation that most of the family ante-
cedents of continuity and discontinuity identified in this study
 CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY IN INFANT EMOTIONALITY
were consistent with those anticipated, it should be noted that
the distal factors and proximal processes under study proved
more successful in accounting for stability and change in nega-
tive than positive emotionality. Recall that we had no success in
accounting for why some infants who were high in positive emo-
tionality changed by 9 months, whereas others did not; and
univariate comparisons of distal factors did not distinguish be-
tween the LL and LH positive-emotionality groups. One reason
for the limited success in accounting for change in positive emo-
tionality relative to negative emotionality may be that the latter
is a more salient characteristic to parents and one that they are
more responsive to than positive emotionality. Continuity and
discontinuity in positive affect/social responsiveness may result
from less deliberate processes, in fact, processes that Malatesta
and colleagues' (1989) recent work suggests may be best eluci-
dated through a more microanalytic analysis of interaction
than the one used in this investigation, particularly one that
emphasizes facial expressions. Perhaps, too, had additional ob-
servational data been available, multimeasure compositing
could have generated more reliable measures that would have
been more sensitive to stability and change in positive emotion-
ality. There is also the possibility that the constructs used in this
inquiry as potential conditions of discontinuity, based as they
were on prior research on negative emotionality (Engfer, 1986;
Matheny, 1986; Washington et al., 1986), may simply have been
inappropriate for illuminating factors and processes responsi-
ble for stability and change in positive emotionality. Not to be
excluded from consideration, also, is the prospect that it is sim-
ply easier to measure negative than positive emotionality. In
fact, our inability to achieve reliability in observing and record-
ing infant smiles during the 3-month mother-infant observa-
tions resulted in this behavior being deleted from the recording
form. Whatever the reason why less success was achieved in
discriminating between groups that stayed the same and
changed with regard to positive emotionality, it is clear that
more work on this particular dimension of affectivity is
called for.
Perhaps more unexpected than the differential success
achieved in accounting for continuity/discontinuity in negative
and positive emotionality was the unanticipated discovery that
maternal and paternal factors were implicated differentially in
accounting for the subsequent emotional functioning of infants
who scored high or low in negative affect at 3 months of age.
Recall that whereas paternal factors and processes were impli-
cated as important conditions for explaining why babies who
scored low in negative emotionality changed to high or re-
mained the same 6 months later, it was maternal factors and
processes that emerged as principally responsible for explaining
why babies who scored high in negative emotionality at 3
months remained the same or changed over time. Even though
these intriguing findings require replication before definitive
conclusions can be drawn, the data lead us to tentatively pro-
pose that it is mothers who feel good about themselves and their
marriages and who participate in disproportionately harmoni-
ous exchanges with their young infants who foster sufficient
affect regulation to change a highly negative 3-month-old into a
not particularly negative 9-month-old, but that it takes an affec-
tively insensitive, maritally dissatisfied, and uninvolved father
429
to turn a not very negative 3-month-old into a highly negative
9-month-old.
Prior research and theory regarding the conditions of discon-
tinuity in negative emotionality and the developmental signifi-
cance of sensitive mothering make the findings regarding ma-
ternal factors and processes easy to assimilate. Presumably, the
well-resourced mother capable of initiating and maintaining
harmonious interactions with her infant enables the infant to
develop skills to regulate his or her own affective distress while
at the same time providing care less likely to foster distress and
more likely to reduce it when it occurs. Proposing mechanisms
that account for the rather systematic set of father characteris-
tics that differentiated infants low in negativity at 3 months who
changed and stayed the same 6 months later offers more of a
challenge.
One possibility calls attention to the family-system context of
the findings. Conceivably, the low level of involvement of men
whose infants changed from low to high negativity, coupled
with their insensitivity to the emotions of others and dissatisfac-
tion with their marriages, resulted in intrusive, overinvolve-
ment on the part of the mother, which fostered infant distress.
Alternatively, mothers' activity may have served to reduce father
involvement, which itself reflected marital problems that may
also have directly influenced the infant. Certainly consistent
with this notion is recent evidence that troubled marriages are
often characterized by withdrawn husbands (Gottman & Kxo-
koff, 1989; Markman & Kraft, 1989).
Having discussed findings regarding the antecedent and
proximal conditions of continuity and discontinuity in infant
emotionality and attachment, consequences need to be consid-
ered. Of course, the concept of consequences in this inquiry
reflects the temporal ordering of variables rather than any un-
equivocal pathway of influence. After all, changing patterns of
emotionality may as much reflect and be derivative of develop-
ing attachment relations as they are the determinants of them.
From our perspective, in fact, these potential causes and conse-
quences are reciprocally linked.
It is particularly intriguing, in view of the differential success
in forecasting change in positive and negative emotionality, that
attachment security was more systematically associated with
continuity and discontinuity in positive emotionality than nega-
tive emotionality. These results need to be considered in view of
two sets of related findings. First, prior work exploring links
between infant negative affect and attachment security reveals
either no relations (Bates et al., 1985; Belsky & Isabella, 1988;
Sroufe, 1985), weak relations (Goldsmith & Alansky, 1987) or
relations dependent on social support (Crockenberg, 1981). In
contrast, the discovery that infants who change from high to
low positive emotionality are disproportionately likely to be
subsequently classified as insecure in their attachments to their
mothers not only replicates Malatesta and co-workers' (1989)
recent findings, but, in so doing, is consistent with the notion
that insecurity is associated with the experience of daily life
becoming less pleasurable across the first year. The fact that
stability and change in negative emotionality contributed to the
prediction of attachment security when considered in conjunc-
tion with positive emotionality cautions us against concluding
that negative affectivity plays no role in the development of
attachment security. In fact, the findings suggest that attach-
430 J. BELSKY, M. FISH, AND R. ISABELLA
ment security is associated with developmental processes of
affect regulation with regard to both positive and negative emo-
tionality.
In conclusion, the results of this investigation serve to
counter the seemingly implicit assumption of much research
that instability in infant temperament is primarily a function of
measurement error. This study provides substantial evidence
that continuity and discontinuity in at least the emotionality
aspects of temperament are lawfully related to parental, mari-
tal, and infant factors measured before the infant's birth or dur-
ing the neonatal period, as well as to patterns of parent-infant
interaction measured early in the first year and before change
in emotionality was discovered. Moreover, the results under-
score the emerging recognition that family factors, patterns of
infant-affect regulation, and individual differences in infant-
mother attachment security are intertwined in a manner likely
to affect the future development of the child.
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Received March 27,1990
Revision received August 8,1990
Accepted August 8,1990 •