An Affect-Based, Hierarchical Model of Temperament and Its Relations With Internalizing Symptomatology

Abstract

Examined the tripartite model of personality, which emphasizes negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) as central organizing dimensions of personality that are useful for discriminating psychopathologies. Conceptualizations of youth temperament also include second-order, organizing factors of negative emotionality/neuroticism and positive emotionality/extroversion that may differentially predict psychopathologies. A community sample of 290 10- to 17-year-old youth completed the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS), Positive and Negative Affectivity Schedule, and measures of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Factor analysis replicated the 5-factor structure of the EAS and revealed 2 independent second-order factors, negative temperament (NT) and positive temperament (PT). NT and PT demonstrated convergent and discriminant relations with NA and PA. Consistent with the tripartite model, NT was associated with both anxiety and depression scores, but PT was related to depression scores only.

Teacher support mediates concurrent and longitudinal associations between temperament and mild depressive symptoms in sixth grade

“…Empirical studies show that emotionality (or emotional reactivity) is related to depressive symptoms, such that higher levels of negative emotionality predict more anxiety and depression (Anthony, Lonigan, Hooe, & Phillips, 2002;Phillips, Lonigan, Driscoll, & Hooe, 2002). Children with high negative emotional reactivity in first grade (approximately 6-7 years) had increasingly or consistently high levels of depression in early to middle adolescence (approximately 11-14 years; Brendgen, Wanner, Morin, & Vitaro, 2005).…”

Exploring the boundary between temperament and generalized anxiety disorder: A receiver operating characteristic analysis

“…BI as a toddler has been found to predict later psychopathology, particularly anxiety disorders (Biederman et al, 1993;Schwartz et al, 1999). Other measures of related temperamental or personality traits, variably named neuroticism, negative affectivity, or negative emotionality have also been found to have strong associations with anxiety disorders (Anthony, Lonigan, Hooe, & Phillips, 2002;Caspi, 2000;Kuo, Chih, Soong, Yang, & Chen, 2004). Using Cloninger's framework, the related dimension of harm avoidance (HA) appears to be strongly linked to many anxiety and affective disorders in both children and adults (Öngür, Farabaugh, Iosifescu, Perlis, & Fava, 2005;Rettew, Copeland, Stanger, & Hudziak, 2004).…”

An Integrative Common Liabilities Model for the Comorbidity of Substance Use Disorders with Externalizing and Internalizing Disorders

“…Trait negative emotionality is relatively stable from infancy through adulthood (Lonigan, Phillips, & Hooe, 2003;Pedlow, Sanson, Prior, & Oberklaid, 1993;Roberts & DelVecchio, 2000;Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000), this stability is genetically mediated (e.g., Spengler, Gottschling, Spinath, 2012), and associations between NErelated constructs and psychopathology begin early in development. Dispositional measures of 9 negative emotions, such as tendencies toward sadness, anger, irritability, and frustration, have been associated with internalizing and externalizing problems in young children (Eisenberg et al, 2001), preadolescents (Anthony & Lonigan, 2002;Oldehinkel, Hartman, Winter, Veenstra, & Johan, 2004), and adolescents (Silk, Steinberg, & Morris, 2003). Measures of negative emotions early in childhood prospectively predict higher levels of psychopathology in late adolescence (Block, Gjerde, & Block, 1991) and young adulthood (Caspi, Moffitt, Newman, & Silva, 1996), and negative emotionality in late adolescence predicts subsequent development of major depression in adulthood (Wilson, DiRago, & Iacono, 2013).…”