Temperament as Determinant of Phenomenology of Childhood Psychiatric Disorders*

The study was carried out with the main aim of finding the relationship between the temperament 01 children and the phenomenology of the psychiatric disorders exhibited by them. Temperament was taken as the independent variable, phenomenology of the psychiatric disorders in children as the dependent variable and parental handling methods as the intervening variable. Instruments for the measurement of temperament, childhood psychopathology and parental handling were developed and standardized for use in the context of the Indian culture and in Hindi language as the preliminary work for the main study. A group of 100 children suffering from various types of emotional disorders and a control group of 100 normal children were studied with regard to the three variables mentioned earlier. Data on the two groups were separately analysed through univariate and multivariate (factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression) statistics. The results revealed that the phenomenological categories of Low Intelligence with behaviour Problems, conduct Disorders and Somatization were significantly related to the temperament variables of Emotionality, Energy and Attentitivity respectively. The syndromes of Anxiety, Depression, Psychotic symptoms, Special symptoms and Physical illness with Emotional problems did not have relationship with the temperament or parental handling. Thus, temperament has been found to be specific risk factor leading to specific psychopathologies.