Temperamental characteristics of 3--4-year-olds and mother-child interaction.

Comparisons are presented between the temperamental characteristics of preschool-age children from two-child families and aspects of mother-child interaction observed in the home. The data were collected when the children were 42 months old (n = 45) and 50 months old (n = 37). Although few behavioural items were directly relevant to temperament, several temperamental characteristics (Moody, Intense, Shy, Assertive) had behavioural correlates of a type that might be expected. Active and Irregular also showed meaningful patterns of correlations. Unmalleable, Dependent and Attention span did not. However, although there were no sex differences in the ratings of temperamental characteristics, the correlations between particular characteristics and behavioural items sometimes differed markedly between boys and girls, and also between firstborns and secondborns. Thus comparisons between temperamental characteristics and the behavioural data involving the whole sample were sometimes less revealing than those concerning each sex or sibling-status group separately.