Factorial temperament structure in stuttering, voice-disordered, and typically developing children.

Area of Science:

• Developmental psychology
• Child temperament research

Background:

• The Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) is a widely used measure of child temperament.
• Understanding temperament structure is crucial for differentiating developmental pathways.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the structural equivalence of the Dutch CBQ in children who stutter (CWS), typically developing children (TDC), and children with vocal nodules (CWVN).
• To determine if the same temperamental factors are present across these distinct pediatric groups.

Main Methods:

• Principal axis factor analysis was applied to Dutch CBQ data from 69 CWS, 149 TDC, and 41 CWVN.
• Participants ranged in age from 3;0 to 8;11 (years;months).

Main Results:

• A consistent 3-factor solution (Extraversion/Surgency, Negative Affect, Effortful Control) emerged for all groups.
• High congruence was observed between CWS and TDC, and between CWVN and TDC, though Effortful Control showed lower congruence.

Conclusions:

• The fundamental temperament structure is equivalent across CWS, TDC, and CWVN, despite potential quantitative differences in mean scores.
• This structural equivalence validates comparative analyses of individual temperament scales between these groups.