The structure of infant temperament: Factor analysis of the revised infant temperament questionnaire

Factor analyses of the Carey and McDevitt (1978) Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire (RITQ) with a representative sample of 2,443 Australian infants provided limited empirical support for its 9-dimension structure and indicated considerable redundancy in the scale. Of the 9 dimensions, only Rhythmicity and Persistence emerged as relatively pure factors. The other factors were formed from various combinations or divisions of the dimensions. Five infant temperament factors, Approach, Rhythmicity, Cooperation/Manageability, Activity/Reactivity, and Irritability, were chosen for the development of a short form (SITQ). This short form showed good internal consistency and replicability across subsamples of the total group, A 3-factor composite scale was also developed that allowed measurement of an easy to difficult continuum that was strongly related to concurrent behavior problems. Good test-retest reliability was demonstrated for both the 5 separate scales and the composite scale. Although similarities can be shown between the SITQ and various other infant temperament scales, the SITQ has the advantages of parsimony and a firm empirical basis.