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Temperament in the school context: a historical review

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Abstract

The majority of studies on temperament in the educational context originate from the Anglo-Saxon culture, where there has been an increase in research in this field over the last four decades. The objective of this paper is to contribute towards systematizing of relevant findings that have been carried out in the educational context from the field of temperament over the last decades. This is a theoretical paper, where we present relevant findings obtained in the relationship between temperament and school performance, in both academic (academic skills and performance) and social areas (social–educational adjustment in the classroom). The contribution of temperament to the school performance is important, although differences can be seen in relation to the age of the children and the contents of the curriculum. In general terms, the dimensions of temperament that have more direct relationships with the academic outcomes are adaptability and attention persistence. Also worth noting is the role of negative emotionality which has a negative relationship with children’s performance. Its incidence is much greater, however, when accompanied by low abilities of self-regulation, given the important direct effect that effortful control has on both academic achievement and school social adjustment, even when this is evaluated by different informants. We must highlight the increasing evidence of the relationships that exist between the different components of self-regulation (attentional control, inhibitory control, activation control) and negative emotionality (fear, anger) when explaining behavioural problems in the classroom.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Murcia, Espinardo, Murcia, Spain

    Ma Angeles Fernández-Vilar & Jose Antonio Carranza

Authors
  1. Ma Angeles Fernández-Vilar
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  2. Jose Antonio Carranza
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Correspondence to Ma Angeles Fernández-Vilar.

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Fernández -Vilar, M.A. Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain. E-mail: mafvilar@um.es

Current themes of research:

The study of relationship between temperament, parent educational styles and school achievement.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Fernández-Vilar, M.A. (2011). Relaciones del temperamento con el Ajuste y Rendimiento escolar: Temperamento en la educación primaria (Relationships of temperament with socio-emotional educational adjustment and academic competence). Barcelona: EAE. ISBN-10: 3846563315 | ISBN-13: 978-3846563311.

Carranza, J.A. Developmental Psychology, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain

Current themes of research:

Relationship with Executive Function. The relationship between temperament, parent educational styles and school achievement

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Carranza, J.A. (2003). Temperamento en la infancia: Aspectos conceptuales básicos. Barcelona: Ariel. ISBN84-344-0906.

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Fernández-Vilar, M.A., Carranza, J.A. Temperament in the school context: a historical review. Eur J Psychol Educ 28, 923–944 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0147-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-012-0147-0

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