Temperament And Externalizing Behavior

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TEMPERAMENT AND EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR Early Temperament and Adult Externalizing Behavior: The Moderating Effects of Parenting Style For many years there has been curiosity that has impacted the research on personality. Countless researchers have investigated the link between temperament and later developed personality style. It is especially of interest the link between infant temperament future externalizing behavior problems. Temperament refers to a broad array of biologically rooted behavior traits that are early appearing (Bates, Dodge, Pettit & Ridge, 1998). Over the years there are a number of different models and measures of infant temperament that have been advanced. (Thomas & Chess, 1977) These distinctive models and measures distinguish the different dimensions of temperament while including the individual differences in dimensions such as activity level, positive affect, fearfulness, fussiness, predictability and unmanageability (Lahey et al., 2008). Among the various models used to measure temperament, the “truly early starter model (TESM) of antisocial behavior” was advanced to apply a debatable view of early temperament and parenting style to the origins of conduct problems (Shaw et al., 2000). The TESM model suggests the combination of infant fussiness and lack of maternal responsiveness sets the stage for coercive interactions that foster conduct problems later in life (Patterson, 1982). An examination of this model and others stresses the importance of a child’s temperament fitting well with the environment along with the caregivers parenting style. Matching temperament with learning style creates a goodness-of-fit (Thomas & Chess, 1977). When parents or environments clash negatively with a child’s temperament a poorness-of-fit is sure to result. Of the broad categories of temperament, difficult, easy, and slow to warm, this
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