CROSS‐CULTURAL COMPARABILITY OF TEMPERAMENT AMONG JAPANESE AND AMERICAN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

Abstract

The generalizability of temperament, as measured by the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS‐R) (Windle and Lerner 1986), was investigated through a series of data analytic procedures comparing the item responses of Japanese and American preschool children. Consistent with the results of an American preschool sample, a nine‐factor model emerged for the sample of Japanese preschool children. Configurational similarity of salient and non‐salient factor loadings for the nine temperament constructs across the two cultural groups was supported via congruence coefficients which ranged from 0.73 to 0.98 (Mdn = 0.91). Restricted (confirmatory) simultaneous group models for each of the nine temperament constructs indicated that the factor loading patterns were invariant across the two preschool samples, thus supporting the equality of scale metrics or units of measurement across groups. Statistical tests of differences in factor means between the two cultural samples suggested that the primary caregivers of Japanese preschoolers, relative to the primary caregivers of American preschoolers, rated their children as higher in Activity Level ‐ Sleep and lower in Approach ‐ Withdrawal, Flexibility ‐ Rigidity, Quality of Mood, and Rhythmicity‐Sleep; no statistically significant differences in mean levels were reported for Activity Level ‐ General, Task Orientation, Rhythmicity‐Eating and Rhythmicity‐Daily Habits.