Reassessing the Dimensions of Temperamental Individuality Across the Life Span:The Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R)

Abstract

The principal objective of this research was to identify age-continuous features of temperament, across an age span from early childhood to late adolescence/early adulthood through the construction of a new temperament measure, the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R). Limitations of an extant temperament measure, the Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS), were considered in the present scale construction research. A temperament questionnaire composed of an initial pool of 106 items was administered to three different samples-preschoolers, elementary school children, and late adolescents/early adults. The analyses included interrater agreement for content validity of items, item-total scale analyses, factor analyses, and the determination of internal consistency estimates of temperament dimensions for each sample. A nine factor model of temperament emerged for the preschool and elementary school samples, whereas a ten factor model emerged for the late adolescent/early adult sample. Supporting the factorial validity of the DOTS-R across the three age samples, results indicated high congruity for pairwise comparisons of factor loading patterns across samples, and moderate to high levels of internal consistency for each of the temperament dimensions across samples. Data supportive of the predictive validity of the DOTS-R for early and late adolescents are noted as well.