Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 98-109.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.01.10

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Impact of Temperament on Adolescents Externalizing and Internalizing Problems: The Role of Parent-child Cohesion and Salivary Amylase

WANG Lingxiao, YU Xiaoming, WANG Xuzhi, JI Linqin   

  1. Department of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014
  • Published:2026-01-19

RichHTML

PDF (PC)

Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between temperament and adolescent externalizing and internalizing behaviors, and examined the mediating effect of parent-child cohesion and the moderating effects of salivary amylase on the relationship. A total of 505 elementary and middle school students from grades 5, 7, and 9 participated and completed two surveys six months apart. Results showed that: Effortful control negatively predicted externalizing behaviors, and fear positively predicted internalizing behaviors; Parent-child cohesion mediated the associations between effortful control/frustration and externalizing/internalizing behaviors; Salivary amylase moderated the association between temperament and internalizing/externalizing behaviors, the association between frustration and externalizing behaviors, and the association between parent-child cohesion and internalizing behaviors. Specifically, effortful control negatively predicted externalizing/internalizing behaviors, frustration positively predicted externalizing behaviors, and the negative effect of parent-child cohesion on internalizing behaviors was smaller when salivary amylase were high. The results reveal the link of temperament, autonomic nerves system functions, parent-child relationship, and internalizing/externalizing behaviors, and suggest that it is necessary to develop effective prevention and intervention measures for individual differences.

Key words: temperament, parent-child cohesion, salivary amylase, externalizing and internalizing behaviors

Achenbach, T. M., Ivanova, M. Y., Rescorla, L. A., Turner, L. V., & Althoff, R. R. (2016). Internalizing/externalizing problems: Review and recommendations for clinical and research applications.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(8), 647-656.
Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001).Manual for the ASEBA school-age forms & profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, and Families.
Atherton, O. E., Zheng, L. R., Bleidorn, W., & Robins, R. W. (2019). The co-development of effortful control and school behavioral problems.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(3), 659-673.
Ato, E., Galian, M. D., & Fernandez-Vilar, M. A. (2020). Difficult temperament and social maladjustment in childhood: The mediating role of family environment.Anales de Psicologia, 36(3), 492-502.
Behrendt, H. F., Wade, M., Bayet, L., Nelson, C. A., & Enlow, M. B. (2020). Pathways to social-emotional functioning in the preschool period: The role of child temperament and maternal anxiety in boys and girls. Development and Psychopathology, 32(3), 961-974.
Crawford, N. A., Schrock, M., & Woodruff-Borden, J. (2011). Child internalizing symptoms: Contributions of child temperament, maternal negative affect, and family functioning.Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 42(1), 53-64.
Davies, P. T., Cicchetti, D., & Martin, M. J. (2012). Toward greater specificity in identifying associations among interparental aggression, child emotional reactivity to conflict, and child problems.Child Development, 83(5), 1789-1804.
Diamond, L. M., Fagundes, C. P., & Cribbet, M. R. (2012). Individual differences in adolescents’ sympathetic and parasympathetic functioning moderate associations between family environment and psychosocial adjustment.Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 918-931.
Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., Spinrad, T. L., Cumberland, A., Liew, J., Reiser, M., … Losoya, S. H. (2009). Longitudinal relations of children’s effortful control, impulsivity, and negative emotionality to their externalizing, internalizing, and co-occurring behavior problems.Developmental Psychology, 45(4), 988-1008.
Ellis,L. K., & Rothbart, M. K. (2001, April). Revision of the early adolescent temperament questionnaire. In Poster presented at the 2001 biennial meeting of the society for research in child development. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
El-Sheikh, M., & Erath, S. A. (2011). Family conflict, autonomic nervous system functioning, and child adaptation: State of the science and future directions.Development and Psychopathology, 23(2), 703-721.
El-Sheikh, M., Keller, P. S., & Erath, S. A. (2007). Marital conflict and risk for child maladjustment over time: Skin conductance level reactivity as a vulnerability factor. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 715-727.
Frick, P. J., & Viding, E. (2009). Antisocial behavior from a developmental psychopathology perspective.Development and Psychopathology, 21(4), 1111-1131.
Gatzke-Kopp, L. M., Willner, C. J., Jetha, M. K., Abenavoli, R. M., DuPuis, D., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2015). How does reactivity to frustrative non-reward increase risk for externalizing symptoms?International Journal of Psychophysiology, 98(2), 300-309.
Hinnant, J. B., Erath, S. A., Shimizu, M., & El-Sheikh, M. (2019). Parenting, deviant peer affiliation, and externalizing behavior during adolescence: Processes conditional on sympathetic nervous system reactivity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60(7), 793-802.
Hofer, C., Eisenberg, N., & Reiser, M. (2010). The role of socialization, effortful control, and ego resiliency in French adolescents’ social functioning.Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(3), 555-582.
Jeronimus, B. F., Riese, H., Oldehinkel, A. J., & Ormel, J. (2017). Why does frustration predict psychopathology? Multiple prospective pathways over adolescence: A TRAILS study.European Journal of Personality, 31(1), 85-103.
Kieling, C., Buchweitz, C., Caye, A., Silvani, J., Ameis, S. H., Brunoni, A. R., … Szatmari, P. (2024). Worldwide prevalence and disability from mental disorders across childhood and adolescence:Evidence from the global burden of disease study. JAMA Psychiatry, 81(4), 347-356.
Kochanska, G., Friesenborg, A. E., Lange, L. A., & Martel, M. M. (2004). Parents’ personality and infants’ temperament as contributors to their emerging relationship.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(5), 744-759.
Korte, S. M., Koolhaas, J. M., WingWeld, J. C., & McEwen, B. S. (2005). The Darwinian concept of stress: Benefits of allostasis and costs of allostatic load and the trade-offs in health and disease.Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 29, 3-38.
Koss, K. J., & Gunnar, M. R. (2018). Annual Research Review: Early adversity, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis, and child psychopathology.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 59(4), 327-346.
Laurent, H. K., Ablow, J. C., & Measelle, J. (2012). Taking stress response out of the box: Stability, discontinuity, and temperament effects on HPA and SNS across social stressors in mother-infant dyads.Developmental Psychology, 48(1), 35-45.
Liu, R., Calkins, S. D., & Bell, M. A. (2021). Frontal EEG asymmetry moderates the associations between negative temperament and behavioral problems during childhood.Development and Psychopathology, 33(3), 1016-1025.
McWey, L. M., Claridge, A. M., Wojciak, A. S., & Lettenberger-Klein, C. G. (2015). Parent-adolescent relationship quality as an intervening variable on adolescent outcomes among families at risk: Dyadic analyses.Family Relations, 64(2), 249-262.
Muris, P., Meesters, C., & Blijlevens, P. (2007). Self-reported reactive and regulative temperament in early adolescence: Relations to internalizing and externalizing problem behavior and “Big Three” personality factors.Journal of Adolescence, 30(6), 1035-1049.
Murray, K. T., & Kochanska, G. (2002). Effortful control: Factor structure and relation to externalizing and internalizing behaviors.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30(5), 503-514.
Nielsen, J. D., Olino, T. M., Dyson, M. W., & Klein, D. N. (2019). Reactive and regulatory temperament: Longitudinal associations with internalizing and externalizing symptoms through childhood.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47(11), 1771-1784.
Olson, D. H., Sprenkle, D. H., & Russell, C. S. (1979). Circumplex model of marital and family systems: Cohesion and adaptability dimensions, family types, and clinical applications.Family Process, 18(1), 3-28.
Pruessner, J. C., Kirschbaum, C., Meinlschmid, G., & Hellhammer, D. H. (2003). Two formulas for computation of the area under the curve represent measures of total hormone concentration versus time-dependent change.Psychoneuroendocrinology, 28(7), 916-931.
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In N. Eisenberg, W. Damon, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 99-166). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rudolph, K. D., Troop-Gordon, W., & Granger, D. A. (2011). Individual differences in biological stress responses moderate the contribution of early peer victimization to subsequent depressive symptoms.Psychopharmacology, 214(1), 209-219.
Song, JH., Waller, R., Hyde, L. W., & Olson, S. L. (2016). Early Callous-Unemotional behavior, theory-of-mind, and a fearful/inhibited temperament predict externalizing problems in middle and late childhood. Journal Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 1205-1215.
Sturge-Apple, M. L., Davies, P. T., Martin, M. J., Cicchetti, D., & Hentges, R. F. (2012). An examination of the impact of harsh parenting contexts on children’s adaptation within an evolutionary framework.Developmental Psychology, 48(3), 791-805.
Valiente, C., Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., Reiser, M., Cumberland, A., Losoya, S. H., & Liew, J. (2006). Relations among mothers’ expressivity, children’s effortful control, and their problem behaviors: A four-year longitudinal study.Emotion, 6(3), 459-472.
Walsh, G., & Zadurian, N. (2023). Exploring the links between parental attachment style, child temperament and parent-child relationship quality during adolescence.Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(9), 2721-2736.
Wang, F. L., Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., & Spinrad, T. L. (2016). Role of temperament in early adolescent pure and co-occurringinternalizing and externalizing problems using a bifactor model: Moderation by parenting and gender. Development and Psychopathology, 28(4), 1487-1504.
Zohar, A. H., Zwir, I., Wang, J. Y., Cloninger, C. R., & Anokhin, A. P. (2019). The development of temperament and character during adolescence: The processes and phases of change.Development and Psychopathology, 31(2), 601-617.
王晓蕾, 陈丽华, 刘旭, 林丹华. (2018). 儿童版特里尔社会应激测试对儿童唾液皮质醇、唾液α-淀粉酶和情绪的影响. 心理科学, 41(5), 1240-1246.
叶宝娟, 温忠麟. (2013). 有中介的调节模型检验方法:甄别和整合. 心理学报, 45(9), 1050-1060.
张雯, 王振宏. (2023). 负性生活事件与青少年内化问题的关系:社会支持的中介作用和亲子亲合的调节作用. 心理发展与教育, 39(5), 718-725.
赵景欣, 刘霞, 张文新. (2013). 同伴拒绝、同伴接纳与农村留守儿童的心理适应: 亲子亲合与逆境信念的作用. 心理学报, 45(7), 797-810.
[1] YU Bin, GUO Cheng, MIAO Hualing, PENG Yujue. The Association between Teacher-student Relationship and Aggressive Behavior in Elementary School Students: Roles of Self-esteem and Parent-child Cohesion [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2025, 41(1): 99-108.
[2] WANG Lei, BING Qian, ZHAO Jingxin. The Relationships among Parent-child Cohesion, Sympathetic Nervous System Activity and College Students’ Depression under the Context of Parent-child Separation [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2024, 40(3): 403-411.
[3] LIU Shuang, LI Mei, FENG Xiaohang, ZHANG Xiangkui. A Longitudinal Study of Mastery Motivation and Competence in Early Childhood: The Moderating Effects of Types of Task and Temperament [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2023, 39(2): 161-172.
[4] WANG Xinghua, HONG Huifang, ZHU Ruiling. The Relationship between Mother-child Interaction and Executive Function of 2~3-year-old Children: Moderating Effect of Children's Temperament [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2021, 37(6): 784-791.
[5] ZHANG Yongxin, ZHOU Zongkui, DING Qian, WEI Hua. Classmate Relationship and Externalizing Problem Behavior in Adolescent: The Role of Self-esteem and Parent-child Cohesion [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2018, 34(6): 732-741.
[6] ZHAO Jingxin, YANG Ping, MA Jinling, HUANG Cuicui. Perceived Discrimination and Positive/Negative Emotion of Left-Behind Children: The Protective Role of Parent-Child Cohesion [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2016, 32(3): 369-376.
[7] LIU Shuang, SUN Yang, ZHANG Xiangkui. The Relationships between Mastery Motivation,Temperament and Competence of Young Children [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2016, 32(3): 265-275.
[8] SUN Yan, MA Yanan, YANG Lizhu. The Impacts of Parental Educational Values On Children's Personality: A Moderated Mediation Model [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2015, 31(5): 522-530.
[9] JI Lin-qin, ZHANG Ying-chun, ZHANG Liang, ZHAO Shu-juan, ZHANG Wen-xin. The Relationship of Temperament, Paternal Parenting, and Adolescents’ General Self-concept in Early Adolescence [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2012, 28(6): 595-602.
[10] WANG Yan-hui, ZHANG Wei, LI Dong-ping, LI Dan-li, ZHANG Xiao-li. Temperament and Adolescent Tobacco and Alcohol Use: A Test of Interaction Effects [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2012, 28(3): 292-300.
[11] LIU Wen, PENG Fei-fei. Self-regulation of Preschool Children and its Relations with Temperament [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2010, 26(3): 245-250.
[12] LIU Wen, PENG Fei-fei. Self-regulation of Preschool Children and its Relations with Temperament [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2010, 26(3): 245-250.
[13] LIU Wen, PENG Fei-fei. Self-regulation of Preschool Children and its Relations with Temperament [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2010, 26(3): 245-250.
[14] ZHANG Ming-hao, CHEN Xin-yin, LU Zu-hong. Genetic Factors in Temperament:Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Research [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2010, 26(2): 215-224.
[15] DENG Li-fang, XU Qian, ZHENG Ri-chang. Researches Into the Relationships among Temperaments, Parental Rearing Patterns and Loneliness in College Students [J]. Psychological Development and Education, 2006, 22(3): 53-59.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited
  Shared   
  Discussed   
No Suggested Reading articles found!
Copyright 2018 © Editorial office of Psychological Development and Education
Supported by Beijing Magtech Co.Ltd