The Correlation between Affective Temperaments and Internalizing Problems Reported by Adolescents of Age 14-18 Years
The Correlation between Affective Temperaments and Internalizing Problems Reported by Adolescents of Age 14-18 Years

Summary/Abstract: Internalizing problems are characterized by anxiety, depressed mood, social withdrawal, and somatic complaints. Childhood internalizing problems are a concerning mental health issue due to their con-tinuity into adolescence and associated functional impairment. This study focused on studying the relation between affective temperaments and internalizing prob-lems, in a sample of adolescents in the community. There has been very little research in mental health problems in children and adolescents in Kosovo. The aim of this study was to identify the link between affective temperaments with youth psychopathology, by measuring both temperament with Temperament Evaluation of Memphis, Pisa, Paris and San Diego (TEMPS) and youth psychopathol-ogy with Youth Self Report (YSR) in the Kosovo sample. Our study found that depressive, cyclo-thymic, anxious, and irritiative temperaments were more displayed in female respondents. Mean-while, hyperthermic temperament was not found to be reported as interrelated to gender. However, gender related differences were significant on the YSR scales, with female respondents reporting higher values on those scales. The study found that there is a significant difference between the groups with normal scores on Depressive Temperament with group with high scores for all scales of Internalizing problems. More scores in Depressive Temperament more scores in Internalizing Scales. The same tendencies were found for Cyclothimic Temperament and Anxious temperament. Hyperthermic temperament was not found to have significant effect on Anxious/ Depressed, Withdrawn, Somatic Complaints, and Social Problem. Irritative temperament was found to have significant effect only in Anxious/ Depressed F (2) = 13.1, p<.01, η2= .03. The higher scores in Anxious/ Depressed scores were found in the group with high scores in Irritative Temperament. The study concluded that temperament may only be one of several factors contributing to the de-velopment of psychopathology. This study found that the temperament, which is influenced by envi-ronment and biology, is a significant predictor for internalizing problems.

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