Measurement of fine-grained aspects of toddler temperament: The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire

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Abstract

This article describes the development, reliability, and factor structure of a finely differentiated (18 dimensions) parent-report measure of temperament in 1.5- to 3-year-old children, using a cross-sectional sample (N = 317) and a longitudinal sample of primary (N = 104) and secondary (N = 61) caregivers. Adequate internal consistency was demonstrated for all scales and moderate inter-rater reliability was evident for most scales. Longitudinal stability correlations were primarily large over 6- and 12-month spans and moderate to large from 18 to 36 months. Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure of Surgency/Extraversion, Negative Affectivity, and Effortful Control. In both samples and for both primary and secondary caregivers, older children received higher scores for Attention Focusing, Discomfort, Inhibitory Control, and Positive Anticipation. Primary caregivers rated females higher in Fear, and lower in High-intensity Pleasure, than males; secondary caregivers rated females higher than males in several aspects of Effortful Control.

Section snippets

Temperament constructs assessed in the new instrument

The 18 scales included in the ECBQ are predominantly “downward extensions” of dimensions contained on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart et al., 2001) and “upward extensions” from the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R; Gartstein and Rothbart, 2003). Ten scales are found in similar forms on all three instruments: Activity Level, Attention Focusing (labeled Duration of Orienting on IBQ-R and including attention shifting capability on the CBQ), Fear (including startle

Temperament structure

A fine-grained approach to temperament, in addition to allowing greater specificity in predicting and assessing relations between temperament and other constructs, contributes to an understanding of temperament through investigation of hierarchical relations among traits. Factor analysis of the IBQ-R and CBQ has consistently yielded a three-factor structure (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003; Kochanska, DeVet, Goldman, Murray, & Putnam, 1994; Rothbart et al., 2001). In both infants and older children,

Development of temperament during toddlerhood

Temperament research has typically emphasized rank-order stability of individual differences. Recent perspectives (e.g., Rothbart, 1989, Rothbart, 1994), however, suggest that the neural, motor, and cognitive factors underlying reactivity and regulation are not fully developed at birth, but that maturation leads to changes, or mean-level instability, in the expression of temperament dimensions. Across TBAQ scales, Goldsmith (1996) noted a slight tendency for scale scores to increase with age,

Participants

We describe analyses carried out on two separate samples. Sample 1 was given a preliminary version of the measure and was used to make decisions regarding item retention. An attempt was made to avoid a common problem associated with questionnaire refinement: reporting only those data collected with a larger instrument from which items had been removed, a practice that tends to overestimate internal consistency (Smith, McCarthy, & Anderson, 2000). Thus, a second sample was recruited and

Internal consistency

Alpha coefficients were calculated separately for the three age groups in Sample 1 and the four time points in Sample 2. Of the 54 alphas calculated for Sample 1, 28 were over .80, indicating very good internal consistency (DeVellis, 1991). Only eight alphas were below .70, and only three (Impulsivity from 18 to 22 months, α = .58, and from 22 to 26 months, α = .54 Attention Shifting from 22 to 26 months, α = .58) were below .60, the value considered the threshold for adequate internal consistency by

Discussion

The results of this study provide initial support for the reliability and validity of the ECBQ as a measure of finely differentiated and varied aspects of toddler temperament. The 18 scales were internally consistent, and for the large majority of dimensions, raters were both consistent with one another and consistent across time. The factor structure of the instrument was similar to that of fine-grained measures of temperament currently in use with older and younger children. Age and gender

Summary

The ECBQ was designed to provide a more comprehensive and detailed assessment of temperament than can be obtained through other existing measures appropriate for toddlers (e.g., Fullard, McDevitt, & Carey, 1984; Goldsmith, 1996). This enhanced specificity will likely lead to an increased understanding of developmental processes underlying temperament, in addition to more precise investigations of relations between temperament and other constructs, including behavior problems, parent–child

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by funds allocated to Samuel Putnam and Maria Gartstein from NIMH (U.S.) grant 5 T32 MH1893, awarded to University of Oregon, and from a new faculty award from Bowdoin College, awarded to Samuel Putnam. The authors wish to acknowledge Laura Backen-Jones for her contributions to the interim version of the ECBQ, Elizabeth White for her assistance in data collection, and Hill Goldsmith for his careful work on the TBAQ, which served as both inspiration for, and origin

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    Present address: Department of Psychology, Washington State University, United States.

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