Child Temperament
The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire Short Form - 107
(ECBQ-107). The ECBQ-107 assesses temperament in toddlers ages one to
three (Putnam, Garstein & Rothbart, 2006). Two subscales from the short
version of the ECBQ (Putnam, Jacobs, Gartstein, & Rothbart, 2010) that
load onto the factors fear (8 items) and frustration (6 items) were
employed to assess temperament. Parents reported the frequency of their
child’s fear and frustration over the past two weeks on a Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (never) to 7 (always). Scores were calculated as
mean scores for all items applicable to the child. Examples of ECBQ
questions in the fear and frustration subscales used in the study
include “During every day activities, how often did your child seem
frightened for no apparent reason?” and “When told that it was time
for bed or a nap, how often did your child get irritable?”
respectively. The ECBQ-107 shows high internal consistency for fear and
frustration (α = .73 for each) and concurrent validity with the standard
ECBQ (r= .73 and .75, respectively) (Putnam et al., 2010).
The Child Behavior Questionnaire – Short Form (CBQ Short
Form). CBQ is a parent-report questionnaire that measures temperament
in young children (Rothbart, Ahadi, Hersey & Fisher, 2001). The CBQ
Short Form contains 94 items across 15 subscales (Putnam & Rothbart,
2006). Parents are asked to rate their observations of their children in
the past six months on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1
(“extremely untrue of your child”) to 7 (“extremely true of your
child”); they are also provided with a “not applicable” response for
situations they have not observed their child in. The current study used
the Anger/Frustration and Fear subscales of the CBQ Short Form,
containing six items each. Examples of items from both scales
respectively include, “Gets angry when s/he can’t find something s/he
wants to play with” and “Is afraid of loud noises.”. The subscales
presented adequate internal consistency (α = .69 - .78 & α = .54 - .60
respectively; Putnam & Rothbart, 2006). Both subscales showed high
correlations with the standard form CBQ (r = .75 & .69 respectively;
Putnam & Rothbart, 2006) and were found to be valid and reliable
measures of temperament in pre-school years (de la Osa, Granero, Penelo,
Domènech, & Ezpeleta, 2013).