Difficult temperament and children?s peer relations: the moderating role of quality of parent?child relationships

Abstract

The current study is an examination of contributions of difficult temperament and qualities of parent?child relationship to Turkish children?s peer relations, with a specific focus on the moderating role of parent?child relationships (closeness and conflict) on difficult temperament when predicting children?s peer relations. Participants were 94 children (56 boys) with the mean age of 7.05 years (SD?=?.88) enrolled in 24 classrooms from five elementary schools in a suburban school district in Turkey. Mothers reported on parent?child relationships and child temperament, and teachers reported on peer relations. Results from the hierarchical regression analyses showed that parent?child conflict was negatively associated with children?s peer relations. Parent?child conflict moderated the association between children?s difficult temperament and their peer relations. Children who experienced low levels of parent conflict and were not temperamentally difficult showed more positive peer relations as rated by their teachers. Limitations and future directions of the current study are discussed.