INFANT POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EMOTIONALITY - ONE-DIMENSION OR 2

To determine whether one or two dimensions of infant (positive and neg ative) emotionality best characterized infant functioning, parental re ports (10 months) and elicited emotion (12-13 months) were examined. T he adequacy of 1- and 2-latent-construct measurement models were evalu ated and the model consisting of separate positive and negative dimens ions proved to fit the data better. The discriminant validity of the 2 -dimension model was evaluated. It was found that early positivity (12 -13 months) predicted later positivity (18-20 months) better than late r negativity, with the reverse being true of early negativity. Results are discussed in terms of prior work on infant and adult emotionality , and implications for the study of development are considered.