Connections between Temperament and Social Development: A Review

This paper critically reviews the literature on the links between temperament and social development in children and adolescents. Social development is broadly defined to include externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems, prosocial behaviour and social competence. It concludes that there are clear links between specific dimensions of temperament and particular aspects of social development. Examples include the association of negative reactivity with externalizing behaviour problems, inhibition with internalizing behaviour problems, and attention regulation with school functioning. Theoretical and methodological issues to be confronted in future research are identified, including the need to investigate further the interactions between temperament and social context. Analysis of patterns of change in temperament, in relation to physiological changes and to such factors as parenting and socio-cultural expectations of children, promise to refine our understanding of how temperament works in context. Some practical implications which can be drawn from the research are also discussed.

[1]  D. Haldane,et al.  Goodness of Fit in the Home , 1991, Journal of learning disabilities.

[2]  C. Judd,et al.  Statistical difficulties of detecting interactions and moderator effects. , 1993, Psychological bulletin.

[3]  M. Windle.  Temperament and social support in adolescence: Interrelations with depressive symptoms and delinquent behaviors , 1992, Journal of youth and adolescence.

[4]  Dispositional emotionality and regulation: their role in predicting quality of social functioning. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  Craig W. Thomas,et al.  Difficult Temperament and Behaviour Problems: A Longitudinal Study from 1.5 to 12 Years , 1997 .

[6]  M. Prior,et al.  Association of a functional polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene with anxiety-related temperament and behavior problems in children: a longitudinal study from infancy to the mid-teens , 2000, Molecular Psychiatry.

[7]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Social and school adjustment of shy and aggressive children in China , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.

[8]  N. McNaughton.  Gray's Neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of septohippocampal theories , 1982, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[9]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  The relations of emotionality and regulation to preschoolers' social skills and sociometric status. , 1993, Child development.

[10]  T. Wachs.  Relevance of physical environment influences for toddler temperament , 1988 .

[11]  D. C. Boom,et al.  The influence of temperament and mothering on attachment and exploration: an experimental manipulation of sensitive responsiveness among lower-class mothers with irritable infants. , 1994 .

[12]  S. Walker,et al.  Temperament and Peer Acceptance in Early Childhood: Sex and Social Status Differences , 2001 .

[13]  D. Smart,et al.  Children's Social Competence: The Role of Temperament and Behaviour, and Their "Fit" with Parents' Expectations. , 2001 .

[14]  J. R. Barclay.  A meta-analysis of temperament-treatment interactions with alternative learning and counseling treatments , 1983 .

[15]  T. Wills,et al.  Temperament and novelty seeking in adolescent substance use: convergence of dimensions of temperament with constructs from Cloninger's theory. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  Chongming Yang,et al.  Peer acceptance in early childhood and subtypes of socially withdrawn behaviour in China, Russia, and the United States , 2000 .

[17]  M. Prior,et al.  The Australian temperament project. , 1989 .

[18]  B. Hagekull.  Infant temperament and early childhood functioning: Possible relations to the five-factor model. , 1994 .

[19]  S. West,et al.  The Additive and Interactive Effects of Parenting and Temperament in Predicting Adjustment Problems of Children of Divorce , 2000, Journal of clinical child psychology.

[20]  M. Maziade,et al.  Psychiatric status of adolescents who had extreme temperaments at age 7. , 1990, The American journal of psychiatry.

[21]  J. Dunn,et al.  Understanding Others, and Individual Differences in Friendship Interactions in Young Children , 2001 .

[22]  Nathan A. Fox,et al.  Conceptual, biological, and behavioral distinctions among different categories of shy children. , 1999 .

[23]  M. Essex,et al.  Revealing the relation between temperament and behavior problem symptoms by eliminating measurement confounding: expert ratings and factor analyses. , 2002, Child development.

[24]  M. Prior,et al.  Stability of Maternally Reported Temperament From Infancy to 8 Years , 1993 .

[25]  D. Carson,et al.  Temperament, Communicative Competence and the Psychological Adjustment of Kindergarten Children , 1986 .

[26]  T. Wachs,et al.  Questionnaire Measurement of Infant and Child Temperament , 1991 .

[27]  C. E. Mobley,et al.  Temperament and behavioral adjustment in preschool children , 1991 .

[28]  A. Caspi,et al.  Moving away from the World: Life-Course Patterns of Shy Children. , 1988 .

[29]  S. Korn,et al.  Temperament, cultural variation and behavior disorder in preschool children , 1983, Child psychiatry and human development.

[30]  R. Plomin,et al.  Genetic and environmental influences on temperament in middle childhood , 1996 .

[31]  M. Prior,et al.  Does shy-inhibited temperament in childhood lead to anxiety problems in adolescence? , 2000, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[32]  G. Kochanska,et al.  Inhibitory control in young children and its role in emerging internalization. , 1996, Child development.

[33]  G. Kochanska,et al.  Toward a synthesis of parental socialization and child temperament in early development of conscience. , 1993 .

[34]  R. Plomin,et al.  Genetic Influence on Tester-Rated Infant Temperament as Assessed by Bayley's Infant Behavior Record: Nonadoptive and Adoptive Siblings and Twins. , 1992 .

[35]  J. Kagan,et al.  Early childhood predictors of adult anxiety disorders , 1999, Biological Psychiatry.

[36]  R. Q. Bell.  A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization. , 1968, Psychological review.

[37]  M. Devries.  Temperament and infant mortality among the Masai of East Africa. , 1984, The American journal of psychiatry.

[38]  A. Sanson,et al.  The Association of Behavioural Adjustment to Temperament, Parenting and Family Characteristics among 5‐Year‐Old Children , 2001 .

[39]  R. Plomin,et al.  The Study of temperament : changes, continuities, and challenges , 1986 .

[40]  W. Boyce,et al.  Dissociations between psychobiologic reactivity and emotional expression in children. , 2000, Developmental psychobiology.

[41]  Roy P. Martin,et al.  Interactive Effects of Student Temperament and Instruction Method on Classroom Behavior and Achievement. , 1994 .

[42]  L. Youngblade,et al.  Individual differences in homeless preschoolers' social behavior , 1998 .

[43]  Jay Belsky,et al.  Clinical implications of attachment , 1988 .

[44]  R. Lerner,et al.  Temperament and elementary school children's actual and rated academic performance: a test of a 'goodness-of-fit' model. , 1985, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[45]  L. Keltikangas-Järvinen,et al.  Adolescent temperament, perceived social support, and depressive tendencies as predictors of depressive tendencies in young adulthood , 1999 .

[46]  J. Dunn,et al.  Sibling relationships in childhood: Links with friendships and peer relationships , 1990 .

[47]  Craig W. Thomas,et al.  Temperament and School Functioning during Early Adolescence , 1994 .

[48]  L. Keltikangas-Järvinen,et al.  Maternal Child-Rearing Attitudes and Role Satisfaction and Children's Temperament as Antecedents of Adolescent Depressive Tendencies: Follow-up Study of 6- to 15-Year-Olds , 1999 .

[49]  D. Cicchetti,et al.  Perspectives on developmental psychopathology. , 1995 .

[50]  M. Prior,et al.  Temperament and Behavioral Precursors to Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder , 1999 .

[51]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Intrapersonal and maternal correlates of aggression, conflict, and externalizing problems in toddlers. , 1998, Child development.

[52]  R. Lerner,et al.  Relations among early adolescent temperament, parent and peer demands, and adjustment: a test of the goodness of fit model. , 1990, Journal of adolescence.

[53]  G. S. Pettit,et al.  Interaction of temperamental resistance to control and restrictive parenting in the development of externalizing behavior. , 1998 .

[54]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Regulation, emotionality, and preschoolers' socially competent peer interactions. , 1999, Child development.

[55]  R. Lerner,et al.  The „Goodness of fit”︁ model of temperament‐context relations: Interaction or correlation? , 1986 .

[56]  M. Rothbart,et al.  Child Temperament and Parenting , 2002 .

[57]  M. Prior,et al.  Risk indicators: assessment of infancy predictors of pre-school behavioural maladjustment. , 1991, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[58]  S. McClowry,et al.  The development of the School-Age Temperament Inventory. , 1995 .

[59]  Roy P. Martin,et al.  Relationships between Temperament and Classroom Behavior, Teacher Attitudes, and Academic Achievement , 1983 .

[60]  J. Gray,et al.  Précis of The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system , 1982, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[61]  L. Sheeber.  Empirical Dissociations between Temperament and Behavior Problems: A Response to the Sanson, Prior, and Kyrios Study. , 1995 .

[62]  D. C. Boom,et al.  Do First-Year Intervention Effects Endure? Follow-Up during Toddlerhood of a Sample of Dutch Irritable Infants. , 1995 .

[63]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  The development and treatment of childhood aggression. , 1991 .

[64]  R. Kamphaus,et al.  Modeling the prediction of elementary school adjustment from preschool temperament , 1999 .

[65]  G. Kochanska.  Multiple pathways to conscience for children with different temperaments: from toddlerhood to age 5. , 1997, Developmental psychology.

[66]  B. Keogh,et al.  Relationship of Temperament to Preschoolers' Interactions with Peers and Teachers , 1988, Exceptional children.

[67]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  The consistency and concomitants of inhibition: some of the children, all of the time. , 1997, Child development.

[68]  D W Fulker,et al.  Twin temperament during the transition from infancy to early childhood. , 1990, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[69]  J. Kagan.  Biology and the child. , 1998 .

[70]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Contemporaneous and Longitudinal Relations of Dispositional Sympathy to Emotionality, Regulation, and Social Functioning , 1999 .

[71]  J. Kagan,et al.  Adolescent social anxiety as an outcome of inhibited temperament in childhood. , 1999, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[72]  G. Kochanska,et al.  Maternal reports of conscience development and temperament in young children. , 1994, Child development.

[73]  Roy P. Martin,et al.  Interrelationships between temperament characteristics and first-grade teacher-student interactions , 1984, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[74]  Peter K. Smith,et al.  Blackwell handbook of childhood social development. , 2004 .

[75]  G. Bohlin,et al.  Preschool Temperament and Environmental Factors Related to the Five-Factor Model of Personality in Middle Childhood. , 1998 .

[76]  M. Huttunen,et al.  Effects of infant temperament and early intervention on the psychiatric symptoms of adolescents. , 1998, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[77]  M. Prior,et al.  Assessment of the Validity of Easy and Difficult Temperament through Observed Mother-Child Behaviours , 1995 .

[78]  S. Scarr,et al.  Developmental theories for the 1990s: development and individual differences. , 1992, Child development.

[79]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry , 2019 .

[80]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Child-rearing attitudes and behavioral inhibition in Chinese and Canadian toddlers: a cross-cultural study. , 1998, Developmental psychology.

[81]  G. Vimpani.  Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations , 2000 .

[82]  I. Sigel,et al.  HANDBOOK OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY , 2006 .

[83]  J. Kagan,et al.  Early childhood temperament as a determinant of externalizing behavior in adolescence , 1996, Development and Psychopathology.

[84]  M. Reiser,et al.  Prediction of elementary school children's externalizing problem behaviors from attentional and behavioral regulation and negative emotionality. , 2000, Child development.

[85]  M. Prior,et al.  Pathways from Infancy to Adolescence: Australian Temperament Project 1983-2000: (567532013-001) , 2000 .

[86]  Bruce M. Smyth,et al.  Post-Divorce Parenting Patterns , 2001 .

[87]  A. Sanson.  Contamination of measures in temperament research. , 1990 .

[88]  G. Spangler.  Toddlers' Everyday Experiences as Related to Preceding Mental and Emotional Disposition and Their Relationship to Subsequent Mental and Motivational Development: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study , 1989 .

[89]  J. Bates,et al.  Temperament in childhood. , 1989 .

[90]  Activity and mood temperament as predictors of adolescent substance use: test of a self-regulation mediational model. , 1995 .

[91]  S. West,et al.  Temperament as a predictor of symptomatology in children: addressing contamination of measures. , 1998, Child development.

[92]  G. Kochanska,et al.  Inhibitory control as a contributor to conscience in childhood: from toddler to early school age. , 1997, Child development.

[93]  Kenneth H. Rubin,et al.  Emotionality, emotion regulation, and preschoolers' social adaptation , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.

[94]  S. Chess,et al.  Temperament and Development , 1977 .

[95]  H. Lytton.  Child and parent effects in boys' conduct disorder: A reinterpretation. , 1990 .

[96]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Empathy and its development , 1987 .

[97]  M. Prior,et al.  Temperament and stress resilience in school-age children: a within-families study. , 1995, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[98]  N. Fox,et al.  Patterns of brain electrical activity during facial signs of emotion in 10-month-old infants. , 1988 .

[99]  R. Plomin,et al.  Genetic and environmental influences on temperament in middle childhood: analyses of teacher and tester ratings. , 1996, Child development.

[100]  J. Hoeksma,et al.  The effect of infant irritability on mother-infant interaction: A growth-curve analysis. , 1994 .

[101]  B. Mednick.  Personality and Demographic Characteristics of Mothers and Their Ratings of Their 3- to 10-Year-Old Children's Temperament. , 1996 .

[102]  A. Angleitner,et al.  Temperament and the Big Five factors of personality. , 1994 .

[103]  M. Prior,et al.  Temperament, Stress and Family Factors in Behavioural Adjustment of 3-5-Year-Old Children , 1990 .

[104]  A. Sanson.  The structure of temperament from age 3 to 7 years: age, sex, and sociodemographic influences , 1994 .