Temperament Characteristics and Behavior Problems in Three-year-old Children

This paper examines the relationship of temperament characteristics to behavioral adjustment in preschool children. The study is part of an epidemiological project exploring the origins of psychiatric disorder in childhood. The sample represents the total population of 3 year olds living in a rural island community in the Northeastern United States. Data were collected in parent interviews in which mothers and fathers were separately interviewed, and in direct observations of their children's play. The independent variable, temperament characteristics, was measured by a self-report parent questionnaire. The dependent variable, behavior problems, was measured in two ways. The first was based on parent reports which were coded according to a symptom loading technique of known reliability and validity. The second measure of behavioral adjustment was based on the averaged ratings of two clinical judges who based their decisions on several sources of data including play observations, parent reports, and characteristics of the home environment. Results indicate that three temperament characteristics—low distractibility, high intensity, and high adaptability—are closely linked to poor behavioral adjustment. Over half of the variance in either measure of poor behavioral adjustment is explained by one of the temperament characteristics, low distractibility. Analysis of the content of this temperament category reveals that many of the items composing it suggest the child's negativistic or oppositional behavior is particularly prone to parental distortions in reporting. A factor analysis of all temperament items permitted a slight improvement in the clustering of items making up this distractibility-oppositionalism category. After statistically removing the potentially biasing effect of parent-child interaction, the positive relationship between temperament and behavior problems remained. The findings are discussed in relationship to the particular limitations placed on questionnaire data of the sort used in this study. Considering these limitations, it is concluded that certain characteristics of temperament, distractibility-oppositionalism ranking first among them, are positively associated with behavior problems during the preschool period. Longitudinal studies such as the one now under way in this same population are needed to determine to what extent these findings carry predictive significance for the behavioral adjustment of older children.