E. Sulcova et J. Kozeny, DEVELOPMENT OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE EVALUATI NG TEMPERAMENT IN NEWBORN CHILDREN, Ceskoslovenska psychologie, 38(5), 1994, pp. 400-407
Authors present theoretical approaches to the temperament in sucklings
and new-born children on which the development of their questionnaire
was based. Even for early age, temperament is understood as a psychol
ogical construct that can be observed in new-born children in the form
of precursors at psychobiological level of behaviour in other pattern
s of behaviour than in adults. They assume that - if really temperamen
t is being concerned - it will be possible to differentiate four class
ical types of temperament, or tendencies, to introversion or extrovers
ion and to stability or lability, similarly to the case of adults. The
questionnaire of temperament in newborn child (DNT) of the mother-rep
ort type was constructed in such a way that its items can describe not
only problems, but also positive forms of the new-born child's behavi
our with which mother can have experience. It was set up as a loose pa
rt of Prague Descriptive Method evaluating the behaviour of new-born c
hildren and it was evaluated together with it by repeated measurement.
DNT has got 17 items, in detail verbalised five-point scale, and two
dimensions: reactivity to the world and self-regulation; these are und
erstood as first signs of extroversion or introversion, and stability
or lability.