It’s a matter of surgency: Traumatic brain injury is associated with changes in preschoolers’ temperament.

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt cognitive, social, and behavioral functioning. Temperament is often used to reflect emotional and behavioral tendencies in young children, but has never been assessed after TBI. OBJECTIVE: Evaluate whether early TBI disrupts the trajectory of temperament. METHOD: = 69) reported on their child's temperament retrospectively to assess preinjury profiles and at 6 and 18 months postinjury. For each domain of temperament (Surgency, Negative Affectivity, Effortful Control), linear mixed-model analyses were conducted to explore group differences on the rate of change across time. RESULTS: = .33. Children with msTBI showed a lower rate of increase in Surgency compared to children with mild TBI and orthopedic injuries. CONCLUSIONS: Developmental trajectories of Surgency appear to be affected by msTBI. Disruptions in expected developmental trajectories of temperament could underlie some of the sociobehavioral manifestations of TBI in this young age group. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).