Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 May 1;22(3):270-288.
doi: 10.1002/icd.1785.

Associations Between Temperament and Social Responsiveness in Young Children

Brenda Salley  1 , Angela Miller, Martha Ann Bell
Affiliations

Associations Between Temperament and Social Responsiveness in Young Children

Brenda Salley et al. Infant Child Dev. .

Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that social responsiveness (comprised of social awareness, social information processing, reciprocal social communication, social motivation, and repetitive/restricted interests) is continuously distributed within the general population. In the present study, we consider temperament as a co-occurring source of individual differences in social responsiveness in young children. The sample consisted of 62 infants assessed at 2-, 3-, and 4-years-old. Measures of temperament were obtained at each age (Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire, Children's Behavior Questionnaire) and social responsiveness was measured at 4-years-old (Social Responsiveness Scale; SRS). Multivariate patterns of association between components of temperament and social responsiveness were observed at each age, with overall findings in line with the broader literature examining temperament and socio-development associations. Importantly, these results provide support for the usefulness of temperament as a relevant source of variability in social responsiveness, as measured by the SRS, in typically developing young children.

Keywords: Child; Individual Differences; Infant; Social Competence; Social Responsiveness; Temperament.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Cicchetti D, Cohen DJ. Perspectives on developmental psychopathology. In: Cicchetti D, Cohen DJ, editors. Developmental psychopathology: Vol 1. Theory and methods. John Wiley; New York: 1995. pp. 3–20.
    1. Constantino JN. The social responsiveness scale. Western Psychological Services; Los Angeles, California: 2002.
    1. Constantino JN. The quantitative nature of autistic social impairment. Pediatric Research. 2011;69(5 Pt 2):55R–62R. doi: 10.1203/PDR.0b013e318212ec6e. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Constantino JN, Hudziak JJ, Todd RD. Deficits in reciprocal social behavior in male twins: Evidence for a genetically independent domain of psychopathology. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2003;42(4):458–467. doi: 10.1097/01.CHI.0000046811.95464.21. - PubMed
    1. Constantino JN, Przybeck T, Friesen D, Todd RD. Reciprocal social behavior in children with and without pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. 2000;21(1):2–11. - PubMed