Latent Temperament Profiles Across Cultures: Exploring Associations With Cultural Dimensions and Parenting Factors

This study sought to leverage latent profile analysis (LPA) to examine temperament differences and similarities between cultures, considering cultural orientation and parenting/socialization dimensions relations to profile membership. Parents of 910 children between 17 and 40 months of age from the United States, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Russia, Finland, Romania, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Chile were recruited as part of The Joint Effort Toddler Temperament Consortium (JETTC). Consistent with prior work, LPA identified a three-profile model as best fitting for our data, with significant differences between profiles across all three higher-order temperament scales. The first profile reflected moderate surgency (SUR), higher effortful control (EC), and low negative emotionality (NE) profile, and was labeled as “ more regulated .” The second profile was marked by high SUR, moderate EC, and high NE scores, referred to as “ reactive .” The third profile was indicated by high SUR, low EC, and moderate NE, and was thus named “ less regulated. ” Exploratory analyses revealed significant differences between profiles in cultural orientation and parenting practices’ dimensions, including individualism/collectivism, sleep techniques, and play activities. Discussion was informed by the “developmental niche” framework, focusing on further developing our understanding of cross-cultural differences in temperament.