Abstract

Children's temperament continues to make a significant contribution to their physical health, development, and behavior as they progress into later childhood and adolescence. The definition of temperament as behavioral style remains the same, although the relative importance of the several dimensions shifts, factors affecting it broaden, its stability increases, and its measurement becomes more complex. An important role has been established for temperament in behavior problems through childhood but less so for new ones in adolescence, in several aspects of physical health and some other areas such as coping or adaptive style. This article stresses the strong influence that temperament has on school performance and emphasizes the probability that many children who are now said to have the disorder of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder are likely to have normal neurologic function and a temperament that does not fit well with the demands of the modern school environment.