ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN TEMPERAMENT PROFILES AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Abstract

The relationship between several dimensions of temperament and children’s social development has been extensively examined, yet most of the extant literature has focused on the isolated impact of specific temperamental characteristics. Person-centered or profile-based approaches, on the other hand, account for complex combinations of multiple traits within an individual. This study seeks to adopt a person-centered approach to examine the concurrent relationship between previously generated profiles of parent-rated and teacher-rated temperament and psychosocial functioning in early-childhood. Person-centered analysis has the capacity to move beyond the identification of narrow risk factors to characterize groups of children who respond similarly to environmental demands and require similar levels of support. To examine the relationship between temperament profile membership and concurrent internalizing problem behaviors, externalizing problem behaviors, and social skills, multiple iterations of the modified BCH procedure were performed. Wald’s chi-squared, pairwise comparison tests were then implemented to explore how different temperamental groups diverged in their expression of problem behaviors and social functioning. Across home and school environments, higher levels of exuberance, greater negative emotionality, and lower behavioral regulation contributed to increased externalizing behavior concerns, whereas lower levels of exuberance, greater negative emotionally, and lower perceptual sensitivity contributed to greater internalizing behavior concerns. Analyses regarding the influence of temperament profile membership on social outcomes demonstrated that extreme levels of perceptual sensitivity, higher levels of exuberance, greater negative emotionality, and lower behavioral regulation contributed to weaker social functioning. Associations between perceptual sensitivity and psychosocial outcomes suggested a more complex relationship that was maintained by emotional regulation or soothability. Additionally, children’s self-regulation demonstrated considerable nuance, such that subtle differences in the specific types of self-regulation asserted greater implications on the estimation of overall problem behaviors and social functioning. These results were commensurate with patterns found in existing literature regarding the complex influence of temperament on social developmental outcomes. A few of the current findings also provided novel insight to unique interactions among temperament characteristics that, to the author’s knowledge, have never been explored with person-centered models before. The results of the current study supplemented the field’s current comprehension of temperament and contributed to more meaningful accommodation of children’s individual differences. Continued replication of person-centered literate establishes credibility for profile-based approaches in explaining the processes of child temperament and addressing children’s psychosocial challenges in many different settings. Future person-research centered research should continue to examine the relationship between wide-ranging collections of temperament traits on social-developmental outcomes in a variety of contexts.