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Temperament in children with Down syndrome and in prematurely born children
Egil Nygaard1, Lars Smith, Anne Mari Torgersen
1Educational Psychological Advisory Service, Baerum Kommune, Norway. egil.nygaard@baerum.kommune.no
Insights
Children with Down syndrome showed less attention and inhibitory control compared to typically developing peers. Prematurely born children also exhibited reduced attentional focusing, indicating distinct developmental temperaments.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Temperament is a crucial aspect of child development, influencing social and emotional functioning.
- Understanding temperament differences in children with Down syndrome and those born prematurely is vital for targeted support.
- The Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) is a standardized tool for assessing childhood temperament.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare temperament levels and structures between children with Down syndrome, prematurely born children, and typically developing children.
- To identify specific behavioral differences in attentional focusing, inhibitory control, and emotionality across the groups.
- To examine the cross-cultural generalizability of temperament structures.
Main Methods:
- Parents completed the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) for their children.
- Participants included children with Down syndrome (n=55, aged 4-11), prematurely born children (n=97, aged 5), and typically developing children (n=91, aged 5-7).
- Statistical analyses compared mean temperament scores and factor structures across the three groups.
Main Results:
- Children with Down syndrome demonstrated significantly less attentional focusing, inhibitory control, and sadness compared to typically developing children.
- A clearer emotional factor of "surgency" was observed in children with Down syndrome.
- Prematurely born children showed less attentional focusing than the control group.
- Temperament structures were consistent with previous studies in China and the US.
Conclusions:
- Children with Down syndrome exhibit distinct temperament profiles, particularly in self-regulation and emotional expression.
- Early attention difficulties may be a characteristic of prematurely born children.
- Temperament structures appear to be relatively consistent across different cultural contexts and developmental conditions.
Abstract:
Parents of three groups of children completed the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ). Participants were children with Down syndrome aged 4-11 years (n = 55), prematurely born children aged 5 years (n = 97), and a group of normally developing kindergarten children 5-7 years of age (n = 91). Mean levels and factor structures on the CBQ were compared between the three groups. The children with Down syndrome had less attentional focusing and expressed less inhibitory control and less sadness than the normally developing children. There were also group differences in temperament structures, especially a clearer emotional factor of "surgency" among the children with Down syndrome. The only significant difference in mean temperament scores between the premature children and the control group was that the former evinced less attentional focussing. The temperament structures in the Norwegian samples were very similar to those reported in earlier studies, conducted in China and the US.