Fathers' and mothers' perceptions of temperament in Israeli neonates: effects of adoption and social class.

As part of a longitudinal follow-up study of the development of adopted and biological children in Israel, 87 couples were administered the Bates Infant Characteristics Questionnaire when their first infants were 21 to 30 days old. Middleclass adoptive parents and a middle-class biological-parent control sample constituted one group. A second group comprised a lower-class sample. Mothers in all groups saw the child as more difficult in terms of strength of cry and reactions to being dressed as compared to fathers. Mothers perceived the child as more predictable for diaper changes and sleep. Adoptive parents saw their child as easier, that is, having more stable and positive mood states. Adoptive mothers saw their neonates as more active than the biological mothers. Middle-class parents saw their children as more soothable and as less disturbing in their emotional behavior than lower-class parents. The results indicate that neonatal temperament can be studied and that parental perception is influenced by sex of parent, biological relationship to the child and environmental factors, such as social class and early intervention.