Temperament, Socioemotional Functioning, and Peer Relationships in Chinese and North American Children

Abstract

Temperamental characteristics may play a significant role in the development of social competence and adjustment. Support for this belief comes from a number of studies in North America and Western Europe (see Kagan, 1989, and Rothbart & Bates, 1998 for comprehensive reviews). Nevertheless, the impact of temperamental factors on development takes place in cultural context. Culture may influence the display of personal traits and the way in which they contribute to adaptive and maladaptive functioning. During development, temperament and culture interact, which may lead to different developmental patterns and outcomes of certain dispositional characteristics, such as sociability and shyness, across cultural contexts. The mechanism for the temperament–culture interaction mainly involves the socialization process, such as culturally directed social interpretations and responses in children's relationships with adults and peers (Chen, 2000). Social judgments, evaluations, and responses determine, to a large extent, the functional “meanings” of the characteristics and their effect on individual behavior and adjustment status. Children may actively engage in the processes through their participation in endorsing, transforming, and constructing cultural norms and values in social interactions. In this chapter, we focus on the relations between temperament and peer interactions and relationships in Chinese and North American children. We first describe a conceptual model concerning some basic dimensions of temperament, social functioning, and cultural context. We then discuss major socioemotional characteristics, particularly shyness–inhibition, in Chinese and Western cultures.