EVALUATING CONVERGENT AND DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY OF TEMPERAMENT QUESTIONNAIRES FOR PRESCHOOLERS, TODDLERS, AND INFANTS

Convergent and discriminant validity were examined for 8 widely used preschooler, toddler, and infant temperament questionnaires in a cross-sectional design that included both mothers and day-care teachers as respondents. The analyses focused on activity level, negative emotionality, and approach-sociability. Surprisingly strong evidence was uncovered for convergence among scales intended to measure similar concepts, with most convergent validity coefficients in the .50s, .60s, and .70s. Most of the scales also showed reasonable discriminant properties; however, some scales intended to measure distinct concepts also intercorrelated highly enough (in the .40s and .50s) to raise concerns. These cross-scale correlations could often be understood by reference to the actual item content and the contexts of day care versus home. The main analyses were supplemented with a structural modeling approach.