Relationships between early behavioural characteristics and temperament at 6 years

▶ The present study shows that neonatal behaviour and behaviour in the first year of life are good predictors of temperament at 6 years and that early negative affectivity has an important role on infant temperament development. ▶ The motor performance, orientation, state regulation and ANS stability during the neonatal period, are good predictors of infant positive and negative affectivity at 4 months and 12 months. ▶ The infant negative affectivity are positively related to child general activity and negatively related to persistence/attention temperament dimensions at the age of 6 suggesting that early negative affectivity may be a risk factor for later externalizing problems.