Gender differences in the relationships of temperament and behavioral problems in Russian adolescents

Personality and Individual Differences. 2016. Vol. 101. P. 522–523.

Vasin G., Lobaskova M., Gindina E., Malykh S.

The link between temperament and behavioral problems in adolescents is clearly established in literature. There are also well-replicated gender differences in temperament and behavior problems in general. The goal of our study is to find out if gender differences exist on the intersection of these two domains as well. Behavioral problems were measured with Achenbach’s YSR, temperament traits – with Rothbart’s EATQ-R. The sample consisted of 145 girls, 206 boys, 10-14 years old. First we confirmed gender differences in YSR and EATQ-R scales scores using a one-way ANOVA. There was a significant effect of gender on the following temperament scales: fear (F(1, 347) = 7.82, p=0.005), high intensity pleasure (F(1, 326) = 13.43, p=0.000), depressive mood (F(1, 325) = 17.88, p=0.000), activation control (F(1, 327) = 13.15, p=0.000), low intensity pleasure (F(1, 328) = 11.06, p=0.001). Gender also had a significant effect on externalizing disorders (F(1, 347) = 7.83, p=0.005), but not internalizing disorders. Next we compared pairs of correlations by gender between the two domains and tested the significance of the differences using Fisher’s transformation. Shyness with internalizing disorders was the only pair that showed a difference significant at the 0.05 level, boys having a higher coefficient (r=0.51), than girls (r=0.35). Our study shows that gender differences in the relationships of temperament and behavioral problems exist, but are comparatively rare.

Keywords: temperament, psychopathology