. "3 The Importance of Individual and Cultural Variations." Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2000.
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Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers
Make Friends
Comfort Others
Never/Sometimes
Often/Very Often
Never/Sometimes
Often/Very Often
17
83
24
76
28
72
24
76
13
87
16
84
10
90
14
86
8
92
15
85
12
88
18
82
17
83
25
75
14
86
18
82
15
85
20
80
19
81
25
75
25
75
41
59
22
78
36
64
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics (2000: Table 8).
Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess (1984) identified nine dimensions of children’s temperament: activity level, rhythmicity, approach-withdrawal, adaptability, threshold of responsiveness, intensity of reaction to new stimuli, quality of mood, distractibility, and attention span or persistence. They, and others, have suggested that a key dimension of temperament is the ease with which a child adapts to new circumstances (Kagan, 1989, 1994). At one extreme is the inhibited child, who exhibits fear and effortful control (difficulty maintaining equilibrium when confronted with challenging situations) when exposed to novelty (Kochanska, 1991, 1995), and at the other extreme is the uninhibited child, who responds to novelty with fearless confidence and interest. Often, the inhibited child has a higher level of percep-
