Infant temperament predicts personality more than 20 years later

Researchers investigating how temperament shapes adult life-course outcomes have found that behavioral inhibition in infancy predicts a reserved, introverted personality at age 26. For those individuals who show sensitivity to making errors in adolescence, the findings indicated a higher risk for internalizing disorders (such as anxiety and depression) in adulthood.

Infant temperament predicts personality more than 20 years later. Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash

Temperament refers to biologically based individual differences in the way people emotionally and behaviorally respond to the world. During infancy, temperament serves as the foundation of later personality.

One specific type of temperament, called behavioral inhibition (BI), is characterized by cautious, fearful, and avoidant behavior toward unfamiliar people, objects, and situations.

BI has been found to be relatively stable across toddlerhood and childhood, and children with BI have been found to be at greater risk for developing social withdrawal and anxiety disorders than children without BI.

Although these findings hint at the long-term outcomes of inhibited childhood temperament, only two studies to date have followed inhibited children from early childhood to adulthood.

The current study, conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., and the National Institute of Mental Health, recruited their participant sample at 4 months of age and characterized them for BI at 14 months (almost two years earlier than the previously published longitudinal studies).

In addition, unlike the two previously published studies, the researchers included a neurophysiological measure to try to identify individual differences in risk for later psychopathology.

The researchers assessed the infants for BI at 14 months of age. At age 15, these participants returned to the lab to provide neurophysiological data.

These neurophysiological measures were used to assess error-related negativity (ERN), which is a negative dip in the electrical signal recorded from the brain that occurs following incorrect responses on computerized tasks. Error-related negativity reflects the degree to which people are sensitive to errors.

A larger error-related negativity signal has been associated with internalizing conditions such as anxiety, and a smaller error-related negativity has been associated with externalizing conditions such as impulsivity and substance use.

The participants returned at age 26 for assessments of psychopathology, personality, social functioning, and education and employment outcomes.

The researchers found that BI at 14 months of age predicted, at age 26, a more reserved personality, fewer romantic relationships in the past 10 years, and lower social functioning with friends and family.

BI at 14 months also predicted higher levels of internalizing psychopathology in adulthood, but only for those who also displayed larger error-related negativity signals at age 15. BI was not associated with externalizing general psychopathology or with education and employment outcomes.

This study highlights the enduring nature of early temperament on adult outcomes and suggests that neurophysiological markers such as error-related negativity may help identify individuals most at risk for developing internalizing psychopathology in adulthood. (National Institutes of Health)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Researchers restore sight in mice by turning skin cells into light-sensing eye cells

Researchers have discovered a technique for directly reprogramming skin cells into light-sensing rod photoreceptors used for vision.

Antiviral remdesivir prevents disease progression in monkeys with COVID-19

Early treatment with the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir significantly reduced clinical disease and damage to the lungs of rhesus macaques infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to National Institutes of Health scientists.

Diet may help preserve cognitive function

According to a recent analysis of data from two major eye disease studies, adherence to the Mediterranean diet – high in vegetables, whole grains, fish, and olive oil – correlates with higher cognitive function.

Pigs, chickens, ducks not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

Animal disease specialists are seeking to calm fears that domestic livestock and pets can spread coronavirus, as lockdowns make protein sources scarce in some lower-income countries.

Switching on a key cancer gene could provide first curative treatment for heart disease

Researchers trying to turn off a gene that allows cancers to spread have made a surprising U-turn. By making the gene overactive and functional in the hearts of mice, they have triggered heart cell regeneration.

Large-scale analysis links glucose metabolism proteins in the brain to Alzheimer’s disease biology

A team of researchers has identified disease-specific proteins and biological processes that could be developed into both new treatment targets and fluid biomarkers.