Predicting Children's Prosocial and Co-operative Behavior from Their Temperamental Profiles: A Person-centered Approach

The goal of this study was to examine how aspects of self-regulation and negative emotionality predicted children's co-operative and prosocial behavior concurrently and longitudinally using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Mothers completed measures of children's temperamental proneness to negative emotionality and self-regulation at 54 months. Teachers and parents completed measures of children's co-operative and prosocial behavior at 54 months, first grade, and third grade. A latent profile analysis of the temperamental variables revealed four profiles of children: those high in regulation and low in negative emotionality, those moderate in regulation and moderate in negative emotionality, those low in regulation and high in negative emotionality, and finally those who were very low in regulation but high in anger emotionality. Generally, children with profiles that were high or moderate in terms of regulation and low or moderate in terms of negative emotionality were rated as the most prosocial and co-operative. Children with profiles that were less well regulated and who were high in negative emotionality (particularly anger proneness) were rated as less co-operative and prosocial by parents and teachers.