Temperament In Children

This research paper is set to review and discuss key points relating to the temperament in children and studies that have been done in relation to how it affects a child’s personality and development. Temperament is a very large component of personality for a child at a young age. Early life influences can quickly shape how the temperament of a child begins to develop and how it evolves as they increase in age. Being introduced to positive or negative factors throughout the course of a young life can quickly determine the effects that it will have on a child’s personality and social interactions. This could include the people they socialize with, to even the way their parents treat them. Temperament can cause a domino effect on a child’s social interactions, and how their behavior is shaped. It can affect how positive or negative they are towards life and can shape their overall personality as they grow into an adult. A child’s temperament can describe the overall way in which they approach and react towards certain situations in life.
The study that was carried out was used to examine the currently existing and also the predictive relationships between temperament and how it relates and effects children’s school adjustment and the academic achievement in children who are at-risk (Al-Hendawi and Reed, 2012). The research involved surveying a total of 77 children who were considered at-risk of having temperament negatively impact their development and educational success, ranging in ages from five to 11 years old. The results for the existing relationships showed significant connections between children's temperament and their school adjustment, where negative emotions are significantly connected with and even predicted a child’s school adjustment. It was shown that negative emotionality predicted all four adjustment outcome measures: school performance problems, internalizing problems, positive social behaviors, and externalizing problems (Al-Hendawi and Reed, 2012). Children who tend to show more frequent negative emotions were more prone towards leading into intense emotions, such as the potential for intense crying or anger, which results in a response to frustration and extended emotional upset as a result of changes in plans, and a general tendency toward irritability (Al-Hendawi and Reed, 2012). Those negative emotion patterns were shown to be associated with both the internalizing and externalizing problems, which influenced the children’s overall adjustment to school. When comparing the results to children’s academic achievement, the research shows that by assessing children's performance on different subjects in school, such as; reading, math, writing, and