It's a matter of surgency: Traumatic brain injury is associated with changes in preschoolers' temperament

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt cognitive, social, and behavioral functioning. Temperament is often used to reflect emotional and behavioral tendencies in young children, but has never been assessed after TBI.

Evaluate whether early TBI disrupts the trajectory of temperament.

Primary caregivers of 173 young children (age: 36 ± 12 months) with uncomplicated mild TBI (n = 83), more severe TBI (msTBI; mild complicated, moderate and severe, n = 21) and with orthopedic injuries (n = 69) reported on their child's temperament retrospectively to assess preinjury profiles and at 6 and 18 months postinjury. For each domain of temperament (Surgency, Negative Affectivity, Effortful Control), linear mixed-model analyses were conducted to explore group differences on the rate of change across time.

There were no preinjury temperament differences between groups for any domains, χ²(2) = 2.84; p = .24; χ²(2) = 0.27; p = .87; χ²(2) = 1.47; p = .48. There was a significant effect of group on the rate of change across time for Surgency, χ²(2) = 6.77; p = .03, but not for Negative Affectivity, χ²(2) = 1.47; p = .48, or Effortful Control, χ²(2) = 2.21; p = .33. Children with msTBI showed a lower rate of increase in Surgency compared to children with mild TBI and orthopedic injuries.

Developmental trajectories of Surgency appear to be affected by msTBI. Disruptions in expected developmental trajectories of temperament could underlie some of the sociobehavioral manifestations of TBI in this young age group. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).