The structure of adolescent temperament and associations with psychological functioning: A replication and extension of Snyder et al. (2015)

Do temperament trajectories from late childhood through adolescence predict success in school? Findings from a longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth

School achievement has long-term consequences for occupational success, mental health, and overall psychological adjustment. The present study examined the association between temperament trajectories from late childhood through adolescence and academic outcomes during late adolescence and young adulthood. Data come from the California Families Project, a longitudinal study of 674 Mexican-origin youth assessed 12 times from Age 10 to 23, and from school records. Results from latent growth curve models indicate that higher levels of Effortful Control (EC) at Age 10 were associated with better academic achievement (i.e., higher high school grade point average and test scores, greater likelihood of high school graduation and college attendance) in late adolescence and young adulthood. Higher levels of Negative Emotionality (NEM) at Age 10 were associated with worse academic achievement, but this effect did not hold for all facets of NEM. Neither the levels nor slopes of Positive Emotionality (Surgency, Affiliation) consistently predicted school achievement. There were no main effects of the EC or NEM slopes; however, statistically significant interactions between these slopes and parental monitoring emerged. When parental monitoring was low, youth who experienced greater increases in EC (vs. flat or decreasing slopes) had better academic achievement, and youth who experienced greater increases in NEM had worse academic achievement; in contrast, when parents closely monitored their children, changes in EC and NEM were only weakly associated with achievement. Overall, these findings demonstrate that temperament in late childhood, and changes in temperament across adolescence, have important prospective effects on academic achievement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Temperament in middle childhood questionnaire: New data on factor structure and applicability in a child clinical sample

The Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ) is one of a family of instruments representing one of the major conceptual models of child temperament. The present study reports new psychometric information on the TMCQ using a larger sample than in prior factor-analytic studies of this instrument. Data from parent ratings of 1,418 children were utilized. The sample of community volunteers included 697 typically developing youth and 721 defined by research diagnostic procedures as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Results failed to support the original proposed structure of the TMCQ, but found support for a structure with 12 subscales that confirmed a substantial portion of the lower order factor structure. However, the intended three-factor higher order structure was not able to be fully recovered. Two-group invariance was supported in the final model, supporting use in studies of typical and atypical development. In conclusion, with some modifications the TMCQ remains a useful research measure at the lower order factor level. The validity of the higher order structure is less clear, likely due to measure-specific limitations, and suggests a need for some refinement to the measure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Trajectories of temperament from late childhood through adolescence and associations with anxiety and depression in young adulthood

Anxiety and depression are pervasive and pernicious mental health problems for young adults. Developmental trajectories of adolescent temperament (Effortful Control, Negative Emotionality, and Positive Emotionality) may help us predict who will experience anxiety/depression during young adulthood. The present study used longitudinal data from a large, community sample of Mexican-origin youth ( N = 674) to examine how temperament develops across adolescence (age 10–16) and whether the developmental trajectories of temperament are associated with anxiety/depression during young adulthood (ages 19 and 21). Results indicate that Effortful Control, Negatively Emotionality, and the Affiliation facet of Positive Emotionality tend to decrease across adolescence, whereas Surgency tends to increase. Smaller decreases in Effortful Control and greater increases in Positive Emotionality across adolescence were associated with fewer anxiety/depression symptoms during young adulthood, whereas smaller decreases in Negative Emotionality were associated with more anxiety/depression symptoms later on. Thus, temperament development serves as both a protective factor (Effortful Control, Positive Emotionality) and a risk factor (Negative Emotionality) for later anxiety/depression in Mexican-origin youth.

The role of temperament in the onset of suicidal ideation and behaviors across adolescence: Findings from a 10-year longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth

Suicide among young people is an increasingly prevalent and devastating public health crisis around the world. To reduce the rate of suicide, it is important to identify factors that can help us better predict suicidal ideation and behaviors. Adolescent temperament (effortful control, negative emotionality, positive emotionality) may be a source of risk and resilience for the onset of suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts. The present study uses longitudinal data from a large, community sample of Mexican-origin youth (N = 674), assessed annually from age 12 to 21, to examine how temperament is associated with the onset of suicidal ideation and behaviors during adolescence and young adulthood. Results indicate that higher levels of effortful control (activation control, inhibitory control, attention) are associated with decreased probability of experiencing the onset of suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts, whereas higher levels of negative emotionality (particularly aggression, frustration, and depressed mood) are associated with increased probability of experiencing the onset of suicidal ideation and behaviors. Positive emotionality (surgency, affiliation) was not associated with the onset of suicidal ideation and behaviors. Supplemental analyses showed conceptually similar findings for the Big Five, with Conscientiousness associated with decreased risk, Neuroticism associated with increased risk, and the other three dimensions showing largely null results. The findings did not vary significantly for boys and girls or for youth born in the U.S. versus Mexico. Overall, these findings suggest that adolescent temperament serves as both a protective factor (via effortful control/Conscientiousness) and a risk factor (via negative emotionality/Neuroticism) for suicidal ideation and behaviors in Mexican-origin youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The validity of the higher-order structure of effortful control as defined by inhibitory control, attention shifting, and focusing: A longitudinal and multi-informant study

OBJECTIVE

Effortful control (EC) has been conceptualized as a higher-order construct defined by a class of self-regulatory mechanisms. However, the developmental higher-order structure of EC has seldom been investigated with a thorough psychometric analysis. To begin to fill this gap in the literature, data were obtained from parents and teachers of 185 children (age at T1: M = 9.43 y/o, SD = 1.17) every 2 years for 8 years.

METHOD

We used a structural equation modeling approach for assessing if EC develops as a higher-order factor superordinate to three commonly studied self-regulatory mechanisms, namely inhibitory control (IC), attention focusing (AF), and attention shifting (AS).

RESULTS

Results showed that (a) IC, AF, and AS followed a similar pattern of growth, (b) EC displayed an acceptable degree of scalar longitudinal invariance when operationalized as a latent variable indicated by IC, AF, and AS, (c) a higher-order structure explained the co-development of IC, AF, and AS, and (d) stability and change in EC negatively predicted externalizing symptoms, much better than the stability and change of IC, AF, and AS, but only for parents' reports.

CONCLUSION

Overall, the higher-order structure of EC was supported, but our results also indicated that there is a certain degree of uniqueness in its facets.