Relations among early adolescent temperament, parent and peer demands, and adjustment: a test of the goodness of fit model

Abstract

This study assessed whether the goodness of fit—between early adolescents temperaments and their parents and peers demands, or “ethnotheories”, regarding temperament—was more related to adjustment than were acontextual measures of temperament alone. Data from the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study, a short-term longitudinal investigation of 153 adolescents from the beginning of sixth grade to the end of seventh grade, were used. Temperament was indexed by the nine attributes measured by the Revised Dimension of Temperament Survey, and the measures of demands regarding temperament were derived from different versions of this instrument. Adjustment was indexed by teacher ratings of academic and social competence and by parent ratings of problem behaviors. At the end of Grade 6 and the beginning of Grade 7, the number of significant relations between the adjustment measures and the fit scores tended to be greater than the number of significant relations between adjustment and temperament, measured alone. Moreover, groups formed on the basis of high vs. low temperament fit showed differential adjustment scores: adolescents in the low fit group in regard to both peer- and parent-demands received lower teacher ratings of scholastic competence, and higher parent ratings for conduct and school problems, than did the adolescents in the high fit group.