Dr. Mary Rothbart

In 1981, Dr. Rothbart introduced the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, a parent- report instrument based in her definition of temperament as “constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and regulation.” Over the past quarter-century, this instrument has become one of the most widely employed measures of infant temperament. During the past 45 years, she has collaborated with several graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to develop and refine a battery of questionnaires to assess finely-differentiated aspects of temperament across the life span.

In 2000, a website was established at the University of Oregon to facilitate the dissemination of these instruments. In 2006, the site was moved to its current location at Bowdoin College. Although Sam Putnam manages the day-to-day operations, this site is a collaborative effort coordinating the expertise of the individuals who developed the measures with Mary, including Lesa Ellis (formerly at Westminster College), Jen Simonds (University of Maryland Global Campus), Masha Gartstein (Washington State University), and David Evans (Ponce Health Sciences University).

From this site, you can access the instruments and directions for their use. Please be aware that these measures are intended for use by academic and institutional researchers who are studying large numbers of infants, children, adolescents, and adults to determine specific trends over long periods of time. These measures are NOT the best instruments to use for an individual assessment. Before using the measures, we recommend that you read the Frequently Asked Questions to determine whether they are appropriate for your intended use.

Navigating the website

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):This page contains general information regarding the use of the instruments
• Instrument Descriptions: This page contains links to pages offering details about the specific questionnaires.
• Request Forms: This page contains a form for potential users to complete in order to be granted access to the questionnaires.
• Contact Us: This page contains email and postal addresses for Mary and her collaborators.