What is Temperament? Children are born with their natural style of interacting with or reacting to people, places, and things—their tem-perament. In the late 1950s, temperament research beganwith the work of Alexander Thomas, Stella Chess, andassociates. The New York Longitudinal Study identifiednine temperament characteristics or traits. The researchersfound that these nine traits were present at birth and con-tinued to influence development in important waysthroughout life. By observing a child’s responses to ev-eryday situations, the researchers could assess these tem-peraments. Temperament is stable and differs from per-sonality, which is a combination of temperament andlife experiences, although the two terms are often usedinterchangeably. Since the 1950s, many scientific studies of temperament have continued to show that children’s health and develop-ment are influenced by temperament. We all know childrenwho are much more challenging to deal with than otherchildren, starting at birth. The realization that many behav-ioral tendencies are inborn—and not the result of badparenting—is perhaps one of the most important insightsparents gain from learning more about temperament.

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