Temperament in toddlerhood.

The purpose of this article is to describe how toddler temperament can affect parent-child relations using a goodness-of-fit framework. Nursing considerations for assessing toddler temperament with families and providing parental guidance for managing toddlers with difficult temperament styles are discussed. Emphasis is placed on helping parents to understand their toddler's temperament-based behavior and to devise strategies that maximize compatibility between the toddler's temperament and parental expectations.