[Assessment of temperament in children]

This paper describes the development of a questionnaire to assess the temperament of infants and preschool-children. A German version of the "Toddler Temperament Scale" (Fullard, McDevitt & Carey, 1984) was administered to 80 mothers of children hospitalized to undergo elective surgery. The factor structure of the questionnaire is quite heterogeneous, and it corresponds well with a priori conceptualizations regarding children's temperament structure. The predictive validity of the questionnaire is evidenced by theoretically meaningful temperament related changes in the children's behavior after their dismissal from hospital.