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Influences Of Temperament, Symbolic Gesture, And Caregiver Beliefs On Infant Emotional Expression, Mary Sugg Bassett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the cross-sectional study was to analyze the relationships of infant temperament, communication through symbolic gesture, caregiver beliefs with emotional expression in infants. Participants were the parents and childcare teachers of sixteen infants and toddlers, between the ages of six and 25 months, currently enrolled at the University of Arkansas child development study center. The independent and combined influence of infant temperament, use of symbolic gestures, and the beliefs of parents and teachers were significantly related to infants’ emotional expression in the study. Parent-reported scores of emotional expression competence were positively correlated to teacher-reported positive temperament levels (r …