Infant temperament, pleasure in parenting, and marital happiness in adoptive families

Temperamental characteristics have been related to later externalizing and internalizing behavioral outcomes. To assess the relationship between tempe rament and the early family environment, we measured infant temperament, pl easure in parenting, and marital happiness via parent report in 99 families with a nonrelative adoptive infant, Perceptions of child temperament were assessed using two subscales of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ; Rot hbart, 1981). Mothers and fathers who rated their adoptive child as showing more Distress to Limitations (on the IBQ) reported less pleasure in routin e parenting activities;, this effect was mediated by marital happiness for fathers. Mothers reported less pleasure in parenting with infants perceived to be more temperamentally fearful (on the IBQ). The bidirectional relatio nship between temperamental characteristics and pleasure in parenting is di scussed,