ABSTRACT
Considerable work has focused on the behavioral manifestations of temperament in infancy. How infants react to and cope with stressful events is an important aspect of temperament. It is generally believed that differences in maternal behavior play an important role in differences in infant temperament and stress responsivity. In particular, it would seem that differences in maternal soothing behavior in response to infant distress would impact on infant temperament and stress responsivity. In this paper, we examine the relation between infant temperament and stress responsivity and the relation of infant temperament and stress responsivity to maternal soothing.
