Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS—R): Simultaneous group confirmatory factor analysis for adolescent gender groups.

Confirmatory factor analyses supported the plausibility of a 10-factor model of the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R; Windle Windle Havighurst, 1948/1972). The results of a study by Newcomb, Huba, and Bentler (1981) indicated that middle adolescence was a peak period for the occurrence of stressful life events (also see Compas, 1987). Because high levels of stressful life events and novel demands characterize adolescence, it is important to identify individual difference attributes (e.g., temperament, coping styles) that may potentiate salubrious outcomes and attenuate or ameliorate nonsalubrious outcomes. Research reviewed by Garmezy and Rutter (1983) has suggested that temperament is one of three major variables associated with healthy, adaptive functioning among children growing up under adverse circumstances (e.g., low socioeconomic status, parental alcoholism). Furthermore, the other two significant predictors of healthy, adaptive functioning were family support and external (community) support, both of which have been posed as influenced by temperament (e.g., Rutter, 1983; Werner, 1986). The temperament measure used in this study, the DOTS-R (Windle Chess & Thomas, 1984) in their ongoing and highly influential New York Longitudinal