Examining the relationship between early childhood temperament, trauma, and post-traumatic stress disorder

Understanding difficult temperament in adults: A mixed-methods study

“…These results were also largely consistent with the content of difficult temperament proposed by Chess and Thomas, which includes all five characteristics listed above. If the results of other researchers are ambiguous due to the characteristics of adaptability, withdrawal, or rhythmicity (e.g., Foulds et al, 2017), negative mood and intensity as possible attributes of difficult temperament have taken leading positions in many studies, regardless of both the specifics of the sample and the question under consideration (e.g., Lipsanen et al, 2020;Lucey et al, 2019;Wiseman et al, 2021). Thus, the results of this study support the idea that certain 'universal' attributes of difficult temperament may exist.…”

“…Since then, difficult temperament has mainly been studied in children, although both empirical studies and systematic reviews covering later age groups have emerged. Longitudinal studies conducted by other authors have shown that difficult temperament in early childhood is associated with behavior problems throughout childhood (Guerin et al, 1997), predicted delinquency, gang involvement (Wolff et al, 2020), and lack of both empathy and self-control (Javakhishvili & Vazsonyi, 2022) in adolescence, less healthy eating over the lifespan (Lipsanen et al, 2020), developmental trauma and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (Wiseman et al, 2021), non-engagement in education, employment and training , depressive symptoms and lower well-being (Wu, Meehan, et al, 2022), and a nearly five-fold increased risk of psychotic disorder in adulthood (Brannigan et al, 2020). Cross-sectional studies in adult samples have also revealed that difficult temperament has been associated with aggressive behavior (Giancola, 2004;, while individual temperamental characteristics have been shown to predict attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms (Kajka et al, 2020) and sleep quality (Lukowski et al, 2019).…”

“…It should be noted that researchers have used different theoretical approaches to study difficult temperament, and the measurement of the construct also varies. Some authors focus on the pre-known 'universal' constitution of difficult temperament, which is based on the five attributes proposed in the interactionist theory of Chess and Thomas (Brannigan et al, 2020;Javakhishvili & Vazsonyi, 2022;Wiseman et al, 2021), or defined in the context of other temperament theories, such as the behavior genetics-oriented theory of Buss and Plomin (Pesonen et al, 2003) or the developmental model of Rothbart (Lukowski et al, 2019;Wright & Jackson, 2022;Yu & Yan, 2022). This enables researchers to observe how individual attributes or a derived index of difficult temperament relate to outcomes of interest (e.g., psychopathology).…”

The Expression of Affective Temperaments in Cystic Fibrosis Patients: Psychopathological Associations and Possible Neurobiological Mechanisms

“…Therefore, affective temperaments seem to have a pathoplastic role in influencing the manifestation and course of illness and the response to therapy for affective disorders [ 13 ], as well as the suicide risk in these clinical populations [ 14 , 15 ]. The relevance of a premorbid temperament in delineating the risk of developing non-mood psychopathological events or disorders has also emerged [ 16 ].…”