Infant Temperament in Russia, United States of America, and Israel: Differences and Similarities Between Russian-speaking Families

The present study addresses cross-cultural differences between infants born to families of Russian immigrants in USA and Israel, as well as Russian families residing in Russia, with the emphasis on evaluating the impact of immigration and acculturation. Community samples of primary caregivers of infants between 3 and 12 months of age were recruited and asked to complete temperament (IBQ-R) and acculturation (SAM) questionnaires. Results support our hypotheses that cultural influences contribute to shaping infant temperament, in so far as differences between the samples of infants were found in Perceptual Sensitivity and Low Intensity Pleasure domains of temperament. Although, a number of temperament scales did not significantly correlate with the degree of parents’ acculturation, different patterns of correlations emerged for Russian–Israeli and for Russian–American samples.