Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of temperament to childrenâ??s behaviors in the classroom and their school readiness. Data was collected on 60 preschool children enrolled in Head Start. Teachers rated temperament using the Preschool Temperament Classification System. Trained coders observed childrenâ??s engagement and play during circle time and free play, respectively. School readiness was directly assessed using the Learning Express. Three main findings emerged: (1) Temperamentally-extreme children performed lower than resilient children on the school readiness assessment, suggesting that temperamentally-extreme children begin to lag behind their resilient peers as early as the preschool years. (2) Off-task behavior in the classroom affects undercontrolled childrenâ??s school readiness; however, the degree of influence appears to depend on the complexity of learning specific domains. That is, off-task behavior in the classroom may have a larger influence on more complex subject matter than simpler ones. Classroom behaviors were not related to overcontrolled childrenâ??s school readiness scores. (3) Behavioral differences were found between temperament groups during circle time, however no differences were found during free play. This suggests that classroom context may play a role in temperamentally-extreme childrenâ??s classroom behaviors.