ASU Research E-Magazine: Taking the Temperament

Tommy reads it in a book, “What’s your sign?” He tries the line on the fresh girl who sits next to him in science. “As if...” She dismisses him, wrinkling her nose.

Beyond astrology, Tommy gropes for the answer to “What’s this girl like?” Predictable? Intense? Active? Easy-going? Serious? Busy on Saturday? He tries to gauge their compatibility, as well as her approachability.

While astrology looks to the zodiac in interpreting human affairs, nursing and behavioral research offer something more earthly—temperament profiles.

Temperament is each person’s first and most natural way of responding to the world. It can offer an understanding of the personal characteristics and inborn behavior styles of just about everyone.

“It’s important to understand the difference between temperament, which is a behavioral style, and misbehavior,” says Nancy Melvin, professor of nursing at Arizona State University. Melvin heads the Temperament Intervention for Parents Study (TIPS).

For instance, Jessica’s parents can stop worrying about her shyness. The key is to understand how and when she acts shy, and how that behavior can become a positive aspect of her life. Being timid is a good trait for a girl meeting a stranger on the playground, but it may not garner an A-plus in a classroom discussion.

Or, picture a little boy with an abundance of energy, so much energy that he jumps on the couch, runs around the dinner table, and throws his toys. He’s been cooped up all day. His frustrated mother sends him to his room.

However, a trip to the park where he could run, jump, and scream probably would have done more good, especially if this little boy had learned to tell his mother “I need to go to the park” before he acted up. Both mother and son could have discerned a temperament issue, a high activity level, from misbehavior and found a happy solution.

Misbehavior comes into play when, for example, a child throws a fit to con an adult into handing over a previously denied cookie. The outbreak becomes a temperament issue when it reflects irregular eating or sleeping patterns.

“One way to understand why a child disobeys is to think of behavior problems as a symptom of the ‘fit’ between a parenting approach and a child’s temperament,” Melvin says.

For instance, the energetic little boy mentioned earlier is being asked to do something that doesn’t fit his temperament. Highly active children can get especially restless and frustrated on days when they have to stay indoors, and they may act up before considering the consequences.

By listening to his statement, “I need to go to the park,” or suggesting the same, the mother matches her parenting strategy to the boy’s needs. He gets to work off some pent-up energy, and she can come back to a peaceful apartment.

Punishing the boy by sending him to his room could have started a vicious cycle. The son would have reacted negatively to being cooped up longer and in an even smaller space.

“The same type of behavior will soon happen again,” Melvin says. “Over time, punishment becomes less and less effective and a child can become more and more disobedient.”

Aligning parental strategies with a child’s temperament achieves what researchers label “goodness of fit.” Acknowledging a child’s temperament allows parents to circumvent recurring battles and focus on fundamentals that will carry a happier, healthier child into school and society at large.

The stakes are high. An understanding of temperament can enhance the parent-child relationship. This may prevent emotional disturbances that can take root during infancy and grow unchecked until a child encounters problems in school at age 6.

“All the things that kids fuss over or do well exhibit their temperaments,” says pediatric nurse practitioner Diana Jacobson. “Showing respect for a child’s individuality can be hard for parents, especially if they were raised in a different way, but it can create harmony in the household.”

Temperament doesn’t offer one-size-fits-all parenting. Even handling the same behavior issue with two siblings may require different parenting approaches. A cautious child may need only one warning about stranger danger, while an approaching, active child will require constant reminders.

Further, the parents’ temperaments enter the mix. A father might mesh well with an active, responsive son, but find a highly sensitive, less responsive boy frustrating.

“Many times parents have developed a strategy themselves without realizing why it works so well,” Jacobson says. “We reinforce these management strategies because parents know more about their children than anyone else.”

Jacobson and the 14 other pediatric nurses involved in the ASU temperament study nonetheless witnessed parents’ repeated “Ahaaaa” reactions. For some mothers and fathers, understanding their children’s temperaments relieved the guilt associated with embarrassing behaviors.

“It’s like having General Patton for a child,” one mother remarked. Couch-potato parents began to understand their active, intense children, and vice versa.

For other parents, matching temperament information with their child proved doubly reassuring. They were not the only parents dealing with such spirited, challenging children. Comments included, “He wasn’t quite as intense as I thought he was.” Or, “Now, I’m not constantly wondering, ‘Are we on track?’”

The nurses intervened to help families achieve goodness of fit. Common interventions addressed managing mealtimes and bedtimes, getting dressed, whining, and even keeping easy-going children from being overlooked.

“One of the main things is to teach the parents to plan for success, and to anticipate what their child’s needs will be in any given situation,” Jacobson says.

For example, taking a shy, cautious child to meet relatives for the first time can set up a child for failure, unless parents anticipate the situation and shield their child from being bombarded by too many people too rapidly.

“I would like to see temperament education used as part of routine well-child care,” Jacobson says. “It should be just like talking about developmental milestones and what foods to start throughout a child’s infancy.”

However, temperament information isn’t just for parents. It offers nurses, teachers, pediatricians, counselors, psychologists, and others who work in education, health, or related professions a clearer picture of how children respond to their environments.

Casting the temperament net, as Melvin calls disseminating temperament education, can only gain importance as increasing numbers of children spend as much time in school and day care as they do with their parents.

“Pediatric nurses in the primary care and school settings are in a valuable position to identify and provide interventions to families,” Melvin says. “They are the health-care person most likely to hear about behavior problems in the early stages.”

Health maintenance organizations, such as Cigna in Phoenix and California’s Kaiser, have embraced nurse-based temperament counseling programs because they can reduce the number of pediatrician visits needed and cut health-care costs for children.

Mothers and fathers often look to nurses for instructions and counseling. Nurses usually are the first to see families, and they remain there long after a doctor leaves for another appointment. In addition, nurses and nurse practitioners are among the few health-care providers who still make house calls.

But forget the big folks, kids can benefit from temperament information, too. Such information can empower them within their families, schools, and pediatricians’ clinics.

“I think it’s valuable for children to learn about their own temperament profiles so they can tell people what they need,” says Shirley Rees-McGee, TIPS project director.

She points to her daughter as an example. The girl is slow to adapt, and has learned to say, “Mommy, you are always rushing me. I need more time,” to her highly active mother.

“Temperament has helped me and my husband, too,” Rees-McGee says. “He’s like my little girl, and I used to get so angry with him. Now, he tries to move a little, and so do I.”

Temperament doesn’t hold the magic formula for living happily ever after, but Melvin’s research shows how it can prevent problems from escalating to crises.

“It explains how, not why, people respond to the 10 dimensions,” Melvin says.

Taken as a whole, three decades of international temperament research and the common sense, yet intuitive, interventions developed at ASU could function as an owner’s manual for children.

“Temperament does not offer a blanket statement that this is the way you should raise your kids,” Jacobson says. “I think that has been the problem with most self-help books.”

“What’s your profile?” probably won’t ever replace “What’s your sign?” Temperament is too complex. Similarly, the 10 categories likely will not become a Cosmopolitan or Redbook quiz, “Rate your (blank’s) temperament.” Temperament, however, has been the cover story for Germany’s version of Psychology Today.

Temperament recognizes the spectrum of human behavior styles. It brings information often relegated to celestial bodies down to distinct human bodies and minds, from speculation to science.—Melissa D. Olson