Infant difficult behaviors in the context of perinatal biomedical conditions and early child environment

BMC Pediatrics

Table 2 Changes in infant difficult behaviors among the ages of 3 and 6 months

Infant's difficult behaviors	Proportion of infants (%)			Measure of agreement *kappa*
	High rate of difficult behaviors at the age of 3 months	High rate of difficult behaviors at the age of 6 months	High rate of difficult behaviors at both 3 and 6 months
Prolonged or frequent diarrhea or constipation	11.0	13.9	2.3	0.072
Pronounced lack of interest in being fed or active refusal to eat	6.4	7.6	2.3	0.284***
Excessive demand to be fed	11.1	5.3	1.8	0.154*
Frequent waking and crying at night	4.7	18.1	3.5	0.252***
General frequent and intense crying	2.9	3.5	0.6	0.155*
Noticeable stiffening, turning away, or crying when picked up or handled	6.5	6.5	1.8	0.222**
Pronounced clinging when picked up or intense crying when put down	13.4	9.9	4.7	0 0.323***
Index of infant difficult behaviors^†	30.2	22.2	11,1	0.266***

* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.
^† dichotomized into negative and positive values, which correspond to low and high rates of difficult behaviors.

ISSN: 1471-2431