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Updated: Aug 11, 2026
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Temperament and relationships
Insights
Child temperament influences family dynamics. Active children showed independence, while timid children experienced more fears. Difficult temperaments correlated with problem behaviors and strained family interactions, affecting maternal mood.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Family Studies
Background:
- Preschool children's temperaments are crucial in shaping family relationships.
- Understanding these links can inform interventions for behavioral and emotional well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between preschool children's temperamental characteristics and their family interactions.
- To explore how temperament influences children's feelings and behaviors within the family context.
Main Methods:
- Correlational analysis of temperamental traits (activity, timidity, difficulty) with behavioral and emotional data.
- Assessment of parent-child and sibling interactions.
- Maternal mood and child self-perceptions were also evaluated.
Main Results:
- Active temperament correlated with problem behaviors and negative interactions with parents.
- Timid children reported more fears and illnesses, and less independence.
- Difficult temperament was linked to problem behaviors, negative interactions across all family dyads, and increased maternal anxiety and irritability.
- Difficult children displayed fewer positive feelings towards mothers and more negative self-perceptions.
Conclusions:
- Preschool temperament significantly impacts family relationships and child adjustment.
- Temperamental traits like activity, timidity, and difficulty have distinct associations with child behavior, emotional states, and family dynamics.
- Interventions may benefit from considering a child's temperament to improve family functioning and child well-being.
Abstract:
Temperamental characteristics of preschool children were related to relationships, mothers' mood, and children's feelings towards family members. Active scores were correlated with some problem behaviour and with negative aspects of interactions with mother and father. Active children felt themselves to be independent, while Timid children did not. Timid children had relatively more acute illnesses and worries and fears. Difficult scores were correlated with problem behaviour and with negative aspects of all the types of interaction assessed: mother-child, mother-father, father-child, and sibling-child. Furthermore, the more Difficult the child, the more Anxious, Outwardly Irritable, and Inwardly irritable the mother. In turn, Difficult children expressed relatively few positive and dependency feelings towards their mothers, and more negative feelings towards themselves.
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