Data from 83,423 parent reports of temperament (surgency, negative affectivity, and
regulatory capacity) in infants, toddlers, and children from 341 samples gathered
in 59 countries were used to investigate the relations among culture, gender, and
temperament. Between-nation differences in temperament were larger than those obtained
in similar studies of adult personality, and most pronounced for negative affectivity.
Nation-level patterns of negative affectivity were consistent across infancy, toddlerhood,
and childhood, and patterns of regulatory capacity were consistent between infancy
and toddlerhood. Nations that previously reported high extraversion, high conscientiousness,
and low neuroticism in adults were found to demonstrate high surgency in infants and
children, and countries reporting low adult openness and high adult neuroticism reported
high temperamental negative affectivity. Negative affectivity was high in Southern
Asia, Western Asia, and South America and low in Northern and Western Europe. Countries
in which children were rated as high in negative affectivity had cultural orientations
reflecting collectivism, high power distance, and short-term orientation. Surgency
was high in Southeastern and Southern Asia and Southern Europe and low in Eastern
Asian countries characterized by philosophies of long-term orientation. Low personal
income was associated with high negative affectivity. Gender differences in temperament
were largely consistent in direction with prior studies, revealing higher regulatory
capacity in females than males and higher surgency in males than females, with these
differences becoming more pronounced at later ages. (PsycInfo Database Record (c)
2024 APA, all rights reserved).
