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Temperament

Temperament Constitutionally based individual differences in behavioral characteristics that are relatively consistent across situations and over time (Thompson & Goodvin, 2005). Temperament Dimensions: Fearful distress/Behavioral inhibition Irritable distress/Distress to limits

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Temperament

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  1. Temperament • Constitutionally based individual differences in behavioral characteristics that are relatively consistent across situations and over time (Thompson & Goodvin, 2005)

  2. Temperament Dimensions: • Fearful distress/Behavioral inhibition • Irritable distress/Distress to limits • Attention span/persistence • Activity level • Positive affect

  3. Measurement of Temperament • Parental report (questionnaires) • Advantages: • Parents observe children’s behavior in a variety of situations and over time • Efficient (cost, time) • Disadvantages: • Inaccuracy due to bias (social desirability effects, parental personality, etc.)

  4. Structured Observation: • Advantages: • Greater objectivity • Greater control over conditions of observation • Disadvantages: • Less efficient (cost, time) • Limited in the circumstances in which children are observed (practical, ethical) • Cannot easily observe the same temperament dimension in different situations

  5. Stability of Temperament • Measures of temperament obtained neonatally or in the first months of life are only weakly or inconsistently associated with later measures of those dimensions • Some short-term stability in some temperament dimensions after the first year (and sometimes earlier) • Ex: fearful distress/behavioral inhibition

  6. Research indicates longer-term associations between temperament and later behavior after the second year of life • However, not all children show stability . . .

  7. Temperament and Development • Goodness-of-Fit • Degree to which a child’s temperament is compatible with the expectations of the social environment (including the family environment) • Poor goodness-of-fit is more likely to result in adjustment problems for children

  8. Emotion Regulation • Concerns the management of emotional experiences • Includes positive and negative emotions • Includes attempts to increase as well as decrease emotional experiences

  9. Measurement of Individual Differences in ER • Parental report (questionnaires) • Structured observations • Often use the same types of tasks that are used to measure temperament • Code regulatory strategies or behaviors separately from “reactivity” (e.g., negative affect)

  10. In general, emotion regulation skills are positively related to children’s social competence and academic achievement and negatively related to behavior problems

  11. Family Factors and Individual Differences in Emotion and ER • Emotions expressed in the family are related to children’s adjustment • High levels of positive emotions linked to better adjustment • High levels of negative emotions (anger, sadness) linked to poorer adjustment

  12. Parents’ reactions to children’s emotions are also related to children’s adjustment • Parents who criticize or dismiss children’s feelings have children who are less well adjusted • Exs: less sympathetic toward others, less able to cope with stress, more problem behaviors

  13. Parents who talk to their children about emotions have children who show greater understanding of others’ emotions

  14. Eisenberg et al. (2003) • Examined links between parental emotional expressiveness and children’s adjustment (internalizing and externalizing behavior problems; social competence) • Examined whether associations between parental emotional expressiveness and children’s adjustment were accounted for (mediated) by children’s self-regulation

  15. Participants • N = 208 (approximately) • T1: Mean age = 73 months (6 years, 1 month) • Assessed two years later (T2) • Sample selected to be high or low on behavior problems

  16. Measures • Maternal self-reported and observed emotional expressivity • Children’s reported (by mothers) and observed regulation • Children’s behavior problems and social competence (parent and teacher report)

  17. Results (T2) • Mothers’ positive emotional expressivity was positively related to children’s regulation • Mothers’ negative emotional expressivity was positively related to children’s regulation (surprise!) • Children’s regulation was negatively related to behavior problems and positively related to social competence

  18. Children’s regulation accounted for (mediated) the relation between maternal positive emotional expressiveness and externalizing behavior problems and social competence (only marginally for internalizing behavior problems) • Regulation only marginally mediated relations between maternal negative emotional expressiveness and children’s adjustment

  19. Findings (longitudinal): • Controlled for stability of maternal and child measures from T1 to T2 • Maternal negative emotional expressivity was positively related to children’s regulation (at T2) • But no relation in regression analyses controlling for T1 variables • All other findings from T2 analyses non-significant in SEM longitudinal model • But regression analyses controlling for T1 variables replicated findings for positive maternal emotional expressiveness obtained in T2 analyses

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