Temperament, cultural variation and behavior disorder in preschool children.

Abstract

Thomas, Chess and Birch have reported that children with a particular temperament pattern, “the Difficult Child syndrome,” are more likely to develop behavior disorders. In this study, the relationship between temperament and behavioral adjustment is examined in two groups of five-year-old boys; from middle-class, well educated families and Puerto Rican families living in low income housing. The middle-class children were found to have significantly more and different symptomatology than the Puerto Rican children. A significant correlation existed between symptomatology and temperament in the middle-class children, but not in the Puerto Rican group. The results are interpreted within the framework of vulnerability to stress and the “goodness of fit” model. Some environmental encounters may be more compatible with the so-called Difficult Child temperament syndrome. Incompatible encounters, not temperament, per se, account for the development of behavioral difficulties.