This study investigated the role of temperament in oral language development in over 200 Mandarin and Cantonese speakers in the Growing Up in New Zealand pre-birth longitudinal cohort study. Mothers assessed infant temperament at nine months using a five-factor Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form. They also reported on children’s vocabulary and word combinations at age two using adapted MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory short forms. Regression analyses were employed to examine unique links between infant temperament and language, respectively, controlling for demographic factors. Fear was associated with larger English vocabularies for English-Mandarin speakers and larger Cantonese vocabularies for Cantonese speakers. Orienting capacity was associated with more advanced word combinations for Mandarin speakers, whereas negative emotionality was associated with less advanced word combinations for Cantonese speakers. Positive affect/surgency was associated with more advanced word combinations for English-Cantonese speakers. This study revealed predictive patterns of infant temperament across Chinese-speaking children’s multiple languages.

中文翻译：

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早期气质对说普通话或粤语的新西兰儿童口语发展的影响


本研究调查了 200 多名普通话和粤语使用者的气质在口语发展中的作用 在新西兰成长前纵向队列研究中。母亲使用 5 因素婴儿行为问卷修订的非常简短表格评估婴儿在 9 个月时的气质。他们还使用改编的 MacArthur-Bates 交际发展量表短格式报告了儿童两岁时的词汇和单词组合。采用回归分析分别检查婴儿气质和语言之间的独特联系，并控制人口学因素。恐惧与英语-普通话使用者的英语词汇量较大和粤语使用者的粤语词汇量较大有关。对于讲普通话的人来说，定向能力与更高级的单词组合有关，而对于讲粤语的人来说，负面情绪与不太高级的单词组合有关。积极影响/surgency 与英语-粤语使用者更高级的单词组合相关。这项研究揭示了华语儿童多语言中婴儿气质的预测模式。