ScholarWorks@UNO

Evidence-based Assessment of Temperament in Preschoolers: A Measure

In the field of child temperament and psychopathology there is a large gap in the existing measurements that capture the facets of temperament and prove to be consistent across the lifespan. Currently, we are working on developing a new parent-report measure of child temperament to address the limitations of the existing measures, such as poor construct validity. The higher-order domains to be covered include Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism, Positive Emotionality/Extraversion, and Effortful Control. Previous models of child temperament/ personality that utilized the five-factor model were unable to replicate all higher-order factors in young children. As a result, we are using the three-factor model, because we find it will more accurately map across the lifespan. We are using a combination of top-down, theory-driven and bottom-up, data-drive approaches in creating the new measure of child temperament. So far, we have developed items for the Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism domain, incorporating several facets (i.e. anger, sadness, fear/anxiety, shyness, emotional lability, and guilt), which we have determined will be a comprehensive depiction of this construct based on the extant literature. All items were written at the 6th grade reading level to ensure the generalizability of our measure. We are currently preparing to conduct pilot testing of the new Negative Emotionality/ Neuroticism items, which will be followed by more comprehensive data collection, item pool reduction, item revision, identification of empirically based scales via factor analysis, and revision of the theory-based facets. Our intention is to create a cohesive, fundamental measure for future research in the field of child temperament.