Toddler Temperament as Perceived by Mothers versus Day Care Givers.

Abstract

Two studies concerned with agreement in ratings of temperament are reported. In the first study, the ratings were compared of mothers versus day care givers of the same children on the Toddler Temperament Scale. There was little conver gence between the two groups of respondents for the 1to 2-year-old group of toddlers, but significant agreement on six of nine dimensions for the 2to 3 year-old group. In the second study, one of the possible influences on lack of convergence, rater role bias, was examined by having mothers and day care giv ers rate a videotape of a 2-year-old child for responses relevant to six dimen sions of temperament. Here there was significant agreement on the child's tem perament for all except the mood dimension. Difficulties in the measurement of temperament relating to respondent characteristics are discussed. It is argued that lack of high agreement between raters does not necessarily invalidate the concept of temperament.