Difficult Temperament and Behaviour Problems: A Longitudinal Study from 1.5 to 12 Years

Abstract

Results of a 10-year longitudinal study on the developmental-behavio ural signi cance of infant temperamen tal dif cultness are presented. A cross-time, cross-context methodology was employed using data from over 100 children participating in the Fullerton Longitudinal Study. Dif cult temperament was assessed at 1.5 years by mothers; behaviour problems were assessed by parents during the third year and annually from 4-12 and by teachers from 6-11 years. Temperamental dif cultness correlated signi cantly, pervasively, and to moderate magnitudes with parent reports of behaviour problems from 3.25-12 years. Additionally, analyses using clinical cutpoints showed that 1.5-year-olds deemed tem peramentally dif cult evidenced a greater frequency of elevated scores, speci cally, attention problems, aggressive behaviour, and thought problems (parents) and attention and thought problems (teachers). These data provide evidence for the ecological validity of parent reports of temperamen t and for a temperamental component in the development of childhood behaviour problems.

Temperament, family environment, and behavior problems in children with new-onset seizures

“…In general population children, temperamental factors are associated with behavior problems [13,16], with fussy-difficult and persistent temperaments being the strongest predictors of behavior problems [15]. Other researchers found that infants with a difficult temperament were three times more likely to be in the clinical range of behavior problems than those without a difficult temperament [17].…”

Does infancy matter? predicting social behavior from infant temperament

“…For example, Guerin, Gottfried, and Thomas (1997) found that maternal reports of difficult temperament at 1.5 years were related to both parent and teacher reports of behavior problems, including attention and thought problems, in middle childhood.…”

“…Therefore, heterotypic continuity refers to relations between earlier and later behavior that are based upon age-appropriate and logical associations rather than similarities in exact behaviors. For example, several reports describe the relation between a difficult temperament in infancy and externalizing behavior in childhood (e.g., Guerin et al, 1997;Sanson, Smart, Prior, & Oberklaid, 1993). Clearly, external-izing behaviors can take many different forms and are not isomorphic with irritable behavior.…”

Interaction of temperamental resistance to control and restrictive parenting in the development of externalizing behavior.

“…Specific temperament dimensions are associated with distinct combinations of psychobiological substrates. Research has found several temperament traits to have direct, main-effects-type relations with behavior problems in a nonperfect but replicated pattern of partially differential linkage: Temperamental predictors of behavior problems include (a) irritability-difficultness, preceding both internalizing (e.g., anxious) and externalizing (e.g., aggressive) kinds of behavior problems; (b) behavioral inhibition-fearfulness, typically preceding internalizing more so than externalizing problems (but not always); and (c) impulsivity-unmanageability, typically preceding externalizing problems more than internalizing problems Guerin, Gottfried, & Thomas, 1997;Rothbart & Bates, 1998;Sanson, Smart, Prior, & Oberklaid, 1993;Slotboom, Elphick, van Riessen, van Mill, & Kohnstamm, 1996). Details of the process by which temperament predicts later behavior problems are not known, but the evidence so far provides modest support for models of direct (e.g., continuity of personality traits) and indirect (e.g., through child's impact on parents) linear effects (Rothbart & Bates, 1998).…”