Poster #66 - A dyadic investigation of temperament and observed social behavior in preschoolers

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Temperament refers to individual differences in dispositional reactivity and regulation that are influenced by interactions among biological, genetic, and environmental factors (Rothbart & Bates, 2006; Shiner et al., 2012). Rothbart and her colleagues (2003) have identified three broadband temperamental dimensions during the preschool period, including negative emotionality, effortful control, and surgency, which presumably influence how children interpret and interact with their social world. Although numerous authors have speculated theoretically (e.g., Fox & Henderson, 1999), and demonstrated empirically (e.g., Diener & Kim, 2004; Eisenberg et al., 1995, 1997; Rothbart et al., 1994, 2001), the relation between broadband temperamental factors and social outcomes, there are at least two important gaps to consider. First, much of this work has focused on the relation between parent or teacher report of temperament and social behavior rather than directly observing children’s social behavior. Directly observing children’s social behavior is an important extension of previous work because parent report may not accurately align with children’s social behavior in the real world (e.g., with peers at preschool), and may therefore be less ecologically valid and generalizable. A second important gap to consider is that even when direct observation has been used in relation to children’s temperament, the focus is most often on how children’s temperament influences the child’s own behavior (i.e., actor effects), rather than also considering the influence of temperament on a child’s social partner’s behavior (i.e., partner effects). An actor-partner independence model (APIM) allows for a focus on the dyad rather than the individual child as the unit of analysis and provides estimates of how variables of interest influence the child’s own and the partner’s behavior while accounting for dyadic interdependence (Cook & Kenny, 2005). In the present study, we used an APIM to examine whether broadband temperamental dimensions at Time 1 (N = 105, 52 girls, Mage = 3.50 years) predicted children’s own and their partner’s observed social behavioral with an unfamiliar peer at Time 2 (Mage = 4.76 years). We found that negative emotionality and surgency were positively associated with the victimization of the child’s social partner. Surgency was also positively associated with the child’s own, but not their social partner’s, prospective approach-related behaviors. The child’s own effortful control was also negatively associated with avoidance and time spent hovering around the mother in the social partner. The results from this study are in line with previous work suggesting that broadband temperamental factors are indeed an important factor in contributing to children’s social relationships. As well, these findings provide empirical evidence for the importance of accounting for both actor and partner effects in providing a more complete understanding of children’s socioemotional development.

Authors

• Raha Hassan, McMaster University
  Presenting Author

• Louis A. Schmidt, McMaster University