A Longitudinal Structural Equation Modeling between infant Temperament, Parental Depression, and Infant Problem Behavior

Objectives This study attempted to verify the structural relationship between infant temperament and parental depression that affect infants' problem behavior. Methods To this end, the results of the infant temperament, parental depression, and CBCL1.5-6-year-old test conducted on 1299 children and families in the 4th and 7th panels of the parenting policy research were used. In the structural equation model, infant temperament (emotional, active, social) was selected as exogenous variables, and parental depression and infant problem behavior were selected as endogenous variables. Results First, as a result of a one-way ANOVA of the effects of infant temperament on parental depression and infant problem behavior, infant emotional temperament, active temperament, and social temperament had a direct effect on infant internalization problem behavior, and only emotional and active temperament had a significant effect on externalization problem behavior. It was found that emotional temperament and social temperament had a direct effect on parental depression, and activity only had an effect on maternal depression. Second, an appropriate measurement model was selected and the research model was verified to verify the structural causal relationship between temperament, parental depression, and infant problem behavior. As a result, all three types of infant temperament had a significant causal relationship with infant problem behavior, and a bootstrapping analysis was performed to verify the effect of parental depression mediating infant temperament, and it was found that infants' emotional temperament had an effect on infant problem behavior through parental depression over time. Conclusions Even over time, the relative influence was found through the structural relationship between infant temperament and parental depression on infant problem behavior.