Development of Temperament: Childhood Temperament and the Mother's Childrearing Attitudes as Predictors of Adolescent Temperament in a 9-Year Follow-Up Study

Abstract

Development of temperament dimensions of activity, sociability, and negative emotionality were studied in a random sample of 386 6-year old children over a 9-year period. Childhood temperament dimensions and the mother's childrearing attitudes were measured at age 6 and at age 9 by mother's report, and self-reports of adolescent temperament were obtained at age 15. The structural modeling analyses indicate that the development of temperament may be a function of both sex-differentiated maternal childrearing attitudes as well as constitutional behavioral factors. First, the sex-differentiated role of maternal disciplinary style was found: The mother's low level of strict disciplinary style in childhood predicted a low level of negative emotionality in girls, and a high level of strict disciplinary style predicted low sociability and high negative emotionality in boys. Second, heterotypic behavioral continuity was indicated in girls for adolescent sociability that was predicted by childhood sociability, and...