dispositional optimism: development over 21 years from the perspectives of perceived temperament and...

Personality and Individual Differences 38 (2005) 425–435www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Dispositional optimism: development over 21 years fromthe perspectives of perceived temperament and mothering

Kati Heinonen, Katri R€aikk€onen *, Liisa Keltikangas-J€arvinen

Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 9, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland

Received 25 September 2003; received in revised form 8 March 2004; accepted 17 April 2004

Available online 8 July 2004

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of childhood perceived temperament and mother�schild-rearing attitudes on dispositional optimism–pessimism in adulthood. Participants (N ¼ 509) were two

age cohorts from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study, who were three and 6 years of age at the

study entry. Maternal reports of the child�s difficult temperament (high activity, high negative emotionality,

and low cooperativeness) and mother�s hostile child-rearing attitudes were obtained at study entry and

three years later. Dispositional optimism–pessimism was measured by self-report at the 21-year follow-up.The results show that difficult temperament measured at the study entry predicted hostile child-rearing

attitudes 3 years later, the hostile child-rearing attitudes, in turn, predicting scores indicative of greater

pessimism 21 years later at ages 24 and 27. The results did not reveal cross-sectional interactions between

childhood variables in predicting the disposition nor were any gender differences observed in the devel-

opmental paths.

� 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Dispositional optimism and pessimism; Temperament; Child-rearing; Longitudinal

1. Introduction

Individuals who hold positive expectations for the future tend to believe that good things willoccur in their lives, see desired outcomes as attainable and persist in their goal directed efforts. Incontrast, individuals who hold negative outcome expectations for their future are more likely toexpect bad things to happen in their lives, withdraw effort more easily, become passive and finally

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-9-191-2950; fax: +358-9-191-29521.

E-mail address: [email protected] (K. R€aikk€onen).

0191-8869/$ - see front matter � 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2004.04.020

mail to: [email protected]

426 K. Heinonen et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 38 (2005) 425–435

give up on achieving their goals (Scheier & Carver, 1985). These general and diffuse positive andnegative future expectancies constitute a dimension of personality that is labeled dispositionaloptimism–pessimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985). This personality dimension has been shown to be arelatively enduring across time (Park & Folkman, 1997; Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) andcontexts (Park & Folkman, 1997).

Mounting empirical evidence shows that dispositional optimism and pessimism have con-trasting effect on well-being (for reviews, see e.g., Scheier & Carver, 1985; Scheier, Carver, &Bridges, 2001). For example pessimists have worse morbidity and mortality prognoses thanoptimists (e.g., Scheier et al., 1999; Schulz, Bookwala, Knapp, Scheier, & Williamson, 1996), doworse following a variety of stressful life-events (Litt, Tennen, Affleck, & Klock, 1992; Scheier etal., 1989), report higher levels of depression (Bromberger & Matthews, 1996; Scheier, Matthews,Owens, Magovern, et al., 1989), and experience interpersonal interactions more frequently asconflictual (R€aikk€onen, Matthews, Flory, Owens, & Gump, 1999) than optimists.

Relative to information on well-being associates of dispositional optimism–pessimism, notmuch is known about the origins of individual differences on this disposition. There areadmittedly several factors, such as school performance, self-esteem, experiences of success andfailure that may play a role in the development of dispositional optimism–pessimism. However,with regard to the developmental period of childhood in particular, studies focusing on earlyappearing individual characteristics and family environment (e.g., child-rearing) are clearlywarranted.

Prior study showed that on same-sex middle-aged Swedish twins up to 25% of the variance indispositional optimism and pessimism may be due to hereditary factors (Plomin et al., 1992).Pessimists, relative to optimists, were more likely to retrospectively recall their childhood parent–child relationship and family atmosphere as more negatively tuned (Heinonen, R€aikk€onen,Keltikangas-J€arvinen, & Strandberg, 2004; Hjelle, Busch, & Warren, 1996). In contrast, Brewin,Andrews, and Furnham (1996) showed that dispositional optimism–pessimism of parents andtheir adolescent children were not significantly related, nor were parents� and adolescents� owncurrent reports of parental approval related to adolescents� concurrent reports of dispositionaloptimism–pessimism. However, to date no study has systematically tested the effects of potentiallybiologically based individual characteristics and environmental factors, and their interaction onthe development of dispositional optimism–pessimism using a longitudinal study design extendingover different developmental phases.

Some consensus appears to exist that temperament incorporates, at least to some degree, thebiologically based, inherited and stylistic aspects of behaviour, including emotionality, activityand sociability (Bates, 1989; Prior, 1992; Rothbart, Ahadi, & Evans, 2000). Moreover, when usingmaternal ratings of child�s temperament, it is important to consider temperament as a socialphenomenon rather than as a purely within-the-child characteristic as maternal subjective per-ceptions and the child�s ‘‘true’’ temperament will both affect the developmental outcomes of thechild (Bates, 1989). Of the environmental factors affecting development of personality, parentingmay be considered among the most influential. Given the limited context of early-life experiences,they have greater formature power than those of later life ones (see Maccoby, 2000; McCrae et al.,2000). Moreover, from the perspective of development of dispositional optimism, Scheier andCarver (1993) have suggested that children may acquire their sense of optimism–pessimism fromtheir parents.

K. Heinonen et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 38 (2005) 425–435 427

Temperament is not, however, independent of environmental influences, nor is the child�senvironment independent of the child�s temperament (e.g., Rothbart et al., 2000). Many kinds oftemperament-environment transactions are important in personality development (Scarr & Mc-Cartney, 1983): Individuals exposed to the same environment experience it, interpret it, and reactto it differently (i.e., reactive transaction), evoke different responses from the environment (i.e.,evocative transaction), and actively seek out or create environments they find compatible andsimulating (i.e., proactive transaction).

As a whole, the current study tested the effects of perceived temperament, child-rearing attitudesand potential interactions between them for the development of dispositional optimism over 21years. Even though no systematic gender differences have been found in the level of dispositionaloptimism (e.g., R€aikk€onen, Matthews, et al., 1999), gender differences may exist in the develop-mental paths of dispositional optimism. Therefore, we took gender into account in all analyses.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

Participants were taken from the Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (CRYF), which isan ongoing prospective study originally focusing on the development of biological andbehavioural risk factors of coronary heart disease from childhood to adulthood. At the baseline(1980) of the CRYF study, a stratified random sample of 3596 children and adolescents from sixdifferent age cohorts was selected from the population register of Finland. At the baseline of thestudy these participants were aged 3–18. All participants have been invited to take part in thefollow-up exams held every 3–5 years to date. The project was approved by the institutionalreview boards. Complete details of the CFYF study protocol can be found elsewhere (�Akerblomet al., 1991).

The focus of the current study was on the childhood predictors of adult dispositional opti-mism–pessimism. Thus, participants from whom data on maternal ratings of temperament andchild-rearing attitudes were available during childhood and from whom data on self-reporteddispositional optimism were available during adulthood were selected. Of the 1160 study par-ticipants who were 3 and 6 at baseline, 1029 had data available 3 years later at ages 6 and 9, and693 had data available at the follow-up 21 years from the baseline at ages 24 and 27. Data for theentire 21-year period were available on 308 girls and 201 boys (N ¼ 509) forming the analyticsample of the study.

Participants who had dropped out and those for whom complete data were available did notdiffer from one another in any of the study variables (t < j0:91j, ps > 0:36). The participants in thefollow-up examinations were more likely to be women (v2ð1Þ ¼ 36:17, p < 0:001).

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. Dispositional optimism–pessimismThe respondents� life orientations were measured by using the Life Orientation Test-Revised

(LOT-R: Scheier et al., 1994). The LOT-R is a six-item self-report measure (plus four filler items)


that evaluates generalized expectations of negative (three items) and positive (three items) out-comes. Sample items include, e.g., ‘‘In uncertain times, I usually expect the best’’. The respondentswere asked to rate the extent to which they agreed with the items on a five-point scale rangingfrom strongly disagree (0) to strongly agree (4). Subsequent to reverse-scoring, the items mea-suring positive and those measuring negative outcome expectations were summed, a highersumscore reflecting a more pessimistic life orientation. Previous studies have established goodconstruct validity and good internal reliability for the LOT-R (Scheier et al., 1994). In the currentstudy the Cronbach�s alpha was 0.79. For validity of the LOT-R construct, see Section 3.

2.2.2. Childhood temperament

Activity, negative emotionality, and cooperation in childhood were assessed by the mothersusing scales derived from the Health Examination Survey (Wells, 1980). Activity was assessed ona 4-point scale ranging from 4 (always extremely active and energetic, even restless) to 1 (alwayscalm and controlled). Cooperation was evaluated on a 3-point scale ranging from 3 (continuousproblems in cooperating with peers) to 1 (always very cooperative and responsive to others).Negative emotionality was evaluated using six items (e.g., ‘‘Other children�s parents often com-plain about the child�s behaviour’’ and ‘‘The child often fights’’) on a 2-point scale (statement doesnot fit––the statement fits the child) at the study entry and on a 5-point scale ranging from 1(totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree) at the first follow-up. Together, these dimensions can beunderstood to reflect perceived child difficultness or perceived difficult temperament (see Gold-smith et al., 1987). The reliability of negative emotionality has previously been shown to beacceptable ranging from 0.63 to 0.81 (Katainen, R€aikk€onen, & Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 1997). The3-year rank-order stability of the three scales ranged from 0.27 to 0.38 ðps < 0:01Þ for bothgenders. For the validity and 3-year rank-order stability of the difficult temperament construct,see Section 3.

2.2.3. Mother’s hostile child-rearing attitudes

Three scales derived from the Operation Family Study (Makkonen et al., 1981) were adopted toassess the mother�s child-rearing-attitudes. The first scale, comprising four items, tapped theemotional significance of the child (e.g., ‘‘The child is not emotionally significant to me’’, ‘‘I donot enjoy being with the child’’), the second scale, including three items, focused on the mother�stolerance toward the child (e.g., ‘‘The child makes me nervous’’), and the third scale consisting oftwo items, concerned the disciplinary style of the mother (e.g., ‘‘disciplinary actions are regularlyneeded with the child’’). Each item required an answer on a 5-point scale from 1 (totally disagree)to 5 (totally agree), except for the scale of the disciplinary style questions that ranged at the studyentry from 1 (no) to 2 (yes). The component constellation closely resembles the constellationcalled ‘‘a hostile child-rearing attitude’’ (Schaefer, 1959) According to Schaefer (1959), hostilechild-rearing attitudes consist of three elements: the mother�s emotional rejection of her child, herfeelings that the child is a burden, and her strict disciplinary style. The reliability estimates ofinternal consistency for the individual dimensions have been shown to range from 0.54 to 0.91(Katainen, R€aikk€onen, Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 1997; R€aikk€onen & Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 1992).The 3-year rank-order stability of the three scales ranged from 0.20 to 0.49 ðps < 0:01Þ for bothgenders. For the validity and 3-year rank-order stability of the hostile child-rearing construct, seeSection 3.


2.3. Statistical analysis

Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to testdispositional optimism–pessimism in relation to maternal perceptions of temperament andmaternal hostile child-rearing attitudes. Interactions between temperament and child-rearing inthe development of dispositional optimism–pessimism were tested using a multi-sample proce-dure. The multi-sample procedure involves two steps. First, a model is created where sub-samplesare analyzed concurrently and their parameters are set equal. Second, sub-samples are analyzedsimultaneously allowing parameters to vary (factor loadings or paths). The chi-square differencetest evaluates whether samples� results are more different than similar (see J€oreskog & S€orbom,1993). The potential moderation of gender was also tested using a similar logic. Due to our rel-atively large sample size, chi-square difference, p < 0:01 was used as an indicator of a significantdifference. All analyses were performed using LISREL 8.50 software (J€oreskog & S€orbom, 1993).We applied standard model fitting procedures, maximum likelihood estimation method, andevaluated the goodness of fit of the models using chi-square statistics (v2=df < 2: Bollen, 1989),and Comparative Fit (CFI) and Non-Normed Fit (NNFI) Indices (>0.90), and Root MeanSquare Error of Approximation (RMSEA: Steiger, 1990: <0.08, Browne & Cudeck, 1993).

3. Results

Characteristics of the sample are shown in Table 1. Mothers perceived their sons as significantlyless cooperative (at baseline) and as more negatively emotional (at 3-year follow-up) than theirdaughters. Mothers reported being less tolerant of the behaviour of their sons than of theirdaughters (at baseline), and reported more strict disciplinary actions towards their sons (at 3-yearfollow-up) than towards their daughters. There were no significant gender differences in the otherchildhood variables or in dispositional optimism–pessimism.

3.1. Measurement models

The measurement models for girls and boys consisted of two a priori formulated childhoodlatent factors at the baseline and at the 3-year follow-up, i.e., mother�s hostile child-rearingattitudes and perceived difficult temperament of the child, and a latent factor of dispositionaloptimism–pessimism at the 21-year follow-up. Based on inspection of the modification indices, weallowed two error covariances between two conceptually close childhood variables, and threeerror covariances between the items measuring dispositional optimism–pessimism. After thesemodifications, the measurement model with identical factor loadings fitted well for both girls� andfor boys� data (v2=df < 1:75, CFI > 0:94, NNFI > 0:93, RMSEA < 0:054). Factor loadings forchildhood variables are presented in Table 1 (all ps > 0:001). All standardized factor loadings fordispositional optimism–pessimism were >0.50 and ps > 0:001. Next, all factor loadings were al-lowed to differ between genders. Chi-square difference test was not significant (v2ð13Þ ¼ 25:35,p > 0:01), indicating that girls and boys measurement models were more similar than different.

Table 2 shows that the latent mother�s hostile child-rearing attitudes and perceived difficulttemperament factors were significantly correlated. Correlations between the child-rearing

Table 2

Correlations between the latent factors confirmed in CFA

1 2 3 4 5

Baseline

1. Mother�s child-rearing attitudes –

2. Perceived difficult temperament 0.92 –

3-year follow-up

3. Mother�s child-rearing attitudes 0.56�� 0.69�� –

4. Perceived difficult temperament 0.52�� 0.67�� 0.89�� –

21-year follow-up

5. Dispositional optimism–pessimism 0.10 0.13 0.22�� 0.18� –* p < 0:05.** p < 0:01.*** p < 0:001.

Table 1

Characteristics of the study variables separately for boys and girls, and CFA standardized factor loadings for maternal

child-rearing and maternal perceptions of difficult temperament

Variable Girls Boys t p CFA loadings

Mean (SD) Mean (SD)

Mother’s child-rearing attitudes

Baseline

Child’s low emotional significance 5.83 (1.74) 6.07 (2.03) )1.40 0.16 0.38

Mother’s low tolerance 6.74 (1.69) 7.12 (1.99) )2.33 0.02 0.48

Strict disciplinary style 2.17 (0.45) 2.20 (0.47) )0.56 0.58 0.46

3-year follow-up

Child’s low emotional significance 6.22 (2.19) 6.27 (2.44) )0.24 0.81 0.36

Mother’s low tolerance 6.47 (1.82) 6.73 (1.83) )1.61 0.11 0.60

Strict disciplinary style 2.99 (1.39) 3.38 (1.70) )2.80 0.01 0.66

Perceived difficult temperament

Baseline

Negative emotionality 6.39 (0.79) 6.45 (0.72) )0.89 0.37 0.26

Activity 2.11 (0.63) 2.16 (0.67) )0.92 0.36 0.38

Low cooperativeness 1.41 (0.64) 1.65 (0.79) )3.69 0.001 0.52

3-year follow-up

Negative emotionality 7.75 (2.44) 8.56 (3.26) )3.19 0.002 0.56

Activity 2.02 (0.57) 2.08 (0.61) )1.29 0.20 0.43

Low cooperativeness 1.43 (0.70) 1.53 (0.78) )1.61 0.11 0.54

Dispositional optimism–pessimism

Total score (high pessimism) 6.85 (3.77) 6.56 (3.93) 0.85 0.40


attitudes and difficult temperament (measured at 3-year follow-up) factors with the optimism–pessimism factor were significant.


3.2. Associations between hostile child-rearing attitudes, perceived difficult temperament

and dispositional optimism–pessimism

The confirmed factor structures were used as the foundation for the structural equation models.We tested an a priori hypothesized saturated model in which parameters of girls� and boys� datawere set equal. The hypothesized model included (i) paths from the baseline latent maternalhostile child-rearing and perceived difficult temperament factors to same and dissimilar latentfactors at the 3-year follow-up, (ii) paths from maternal hostile child-rearing attitudes and per-ceived difficult temperament latent factors at the baseline and at the 3-year follow-up to the latentdispositional optimism–pessimism factor at the 21-year follow-up, and (iii) concurrent correla-tions between latent factors at the baseline and at the 3-year follow-up. As the saturated model didnot show acceptable fit, we omitted the non-significant paths one by one. The re-specified modelexhibited acceptable fit (v2=df ¼ 1:93, CFI ¼ 0.96, NNFI ¼ 0.96, RMSEA ¼ 0.039). The re-specified model showed that mother�s perceptions of the child as temperamentally difficult at thestudy entry (at ages 3 and 6), predicted maternal hostile child-rearing attitudes measured at the 3year follow-up (at the age 6 and 9), which further predicted scores indicative of greater pessimismat 21 year follow-up (at the age of 24 and 27) (Fig. 1, the factor loadings were substantially similarto the loadings presented in measurement models, and thus, for clarification of figure not pre-sented here). The model accounted for 5% of the variance of dispositional optimism–pessimism.Next we allowed the paths for girls and boys to differ. The chi-square difference tests showed thatthe paths for girls and boys were more similar than different (v2ð3Þ ¼ 0:84, p > 0:01).

Finally, we tested interactions between maternal child-rearing attitudes and perceived tem-perament of the child in the development of dispositional optimism. The participants were dividedinto two temperament groups using the median of the factor scores from the exploratory factoranalysis of difficult temperament scales at the baseline. Using the multi-sample procedure, we

0.88*** .65***

.62***

0.21***

Baseline (ages 3 and 6)

3-year follow-up(ages 6 and 9)

21-year follow-up (ages 24 and 27)

Perceived Difficult Temperament

Perceived Difficult Temperament

Hostile Child-Rearing Attitudes

Hostile Child-Rearing Attitudes

.49***

Dispositional pessimism

Fig. 1. Final structural model. Standardized values are given for the path coefficient. All the coefficients in the figure are

statistically significant. �p < 0:05, ��p < 0:01 and ��p < 0:001. First-order factor loadings of latent factors are almost

identical with the loadings confirmed in CFA and for the clarification of the figure are not presented. Note 1: The

hostile child-rearing attitudes are stable when measured individually (b ¼ 0:56, p < 0:001), however the stability

becomes secondary in this model.


tested whether child-rearing at the baseline predicted dispositional optimism–pessimism identi-cally in groups scoring above and below the median in perceived difficult temperament at thebaseline. First, we analyzed both samples simultaneously and set their parameters equal. Second,the path was allowed to differ. Next, we re-ran all the analyses using the 3-year follow-up data.Chi-square difference tests showed that the paths between maternal child-rearing attitudes anddispositional optimism–pessimism did not differ according to temperament groupings at thebaseline or at the 3-year follow-up (v2ð1Þs < 0:66, ps > 0:01).

4. Discussion

We tested whether maternal perceptions of the child�s temperamental characteristics and mo-ther�s child-rearing attitudes when measured in early and repeated in middle childhood periods atages 3–6 and again 6–9 predict self-ratings of dispositional optimism–pessimism in adulthood over21 years. The results revealed that maternal perceptions of the child as temperamentally moredifficult, i.e., high in motor activity, high in negative emotionality, and low in cooperation at theage of 3 and 6, predicted maternal hostile child-rearing attitudes, i.e., emotional distance to thechild, low tolerance towards the child�s behaviour, and strict disciplinary style of the mother, 3years later when these children were aged 6 and 9; Maternal hostile child-rearing attitudes, in turn,predicted greater pessimism in adulthood 21 years later at the age of 24 and 27. Perceived difficulttemperament and hostile child-rearing attitudes accounted 5% of the variance of dispositionaloptimism–pessimism over 21 years. The results did not reveal cross-sectional interactions betweenthe temperament and child-rearing variables in predicting dispositional optimism–pessimism,neither did we find gender differences in the developmental paths of the disposition.

There are no previous studies of temperament and dispositional optimism–pessimism. How-ever, references can be made to prior temperament-personality studies that have shown thattemperamental difficultness in childhood predicts low self-esteem (Heinonen, R€aikk€onen, Kesk-ivaara, & Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 2002; Windle et al., 1986), high hostility (R€aikk€onen, Katainen,Keskivaara, & Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 2000) and depressive symptoms (Katainen, R€aikk€onen,Keskivaara, & Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 1999), all constructs of which are correlated with greaterpessimism. It is also important to note that negative emotionality, which is one of the threedimensions of the difficult temperament construct in the current study, has been shown to sharevariance with dispositional optimism–pessimism in studies of adults (e.g., Scheier et al., 1994).

Recent literature has challenged the relevance of the environment in the development of per-sonality (Asendorpf & Wilpers, 1998; McCrae et al., 2000). However, at the same time the impactof parenting on children has been seen as ‘‘incalculable’’ (Collins, Maccoby, Steinberg, Hethe-rington, & Bornstein, 2000; McCrae & Costa, 1994) and its effects on development have beenconsidered to be most influential during childhood, when prior experiences are limited (seeMaccoby, 2000; McCrae et al., 2000). Our findings that hostile maternal child-rearing attitudesare related to greater pessimism are in line with earlier retrospective findings that have shown thatnegatively tuned childhood parent–child relationship as is related to pessimism (Heinonen,R€aikk€onen, Keltikangas-J€arvinen, et al., 2004; Hjelle et al., 1996). However, our findings were notin line with the results of a study by Brewin et al. (1996) showing that parenting and optimism–pessimism are not related. The inconsistency of these findings may be due to methodological


differences: unlike the current longitudinal study and earlier retrospective reports (Heinonen,R€aikk€onen, Keltikangas-J€arvinen, et al., 2004; Hjelle et al., 1996), parenting in a study of Brewinet al. (1996) was assessed using a more concrete, age-specific measure, focusing on parental ap-proval.

Our results indicate that perceived temperamental difficultness and maternal hostile child-rearing do not predict dispositional optimism–pessimism 21 years later in isolation from eachother. Instead the model showed that temperamental difficultness in the early childhood periodpromoted maternal hostile child-rearing 3 years later in the middle childhood period; hostile child-rearing, in turn, was associated with dispositional pessimism. These results are in line with thesuggestion of the evocative temperament-environment transaction (Scarr & McCartney, 1983).However, our results cannot exclude the possibility that also other temperament-environmenttransactions play a role in the development of dispositional optimism e.g., the reactive temper-ament-environment.

Our findings that there are no gender differences in the level of dispositional optimism–pessi-mism in adulthood are in line with earlier findings (e.g., R€aikk€onen, Matthews, et al., 1999).Moreover, our findings contribute to current literature showing that there are no gender differ-ences in the developmental paths of optimism–pessimism. However, we could explain 5% of thevariance of optimism–pessimism. Thus, this finding cannot be generalized to unravel how dis-positional optimism–pessimism develops in general.

There are limitations to our study. First, we used non-standardized temperament and child-rearing attitudes measures that are obviously not the best currently available. These limitationsstem partly from the fact that CRYF baseline data collection was done over 20 years ago. Theconfirmatory factor analysis, however, provides some evidence of construct validity for thechildhood measures (see also Katainen, R€aikk€onen, Keskivaara, et al., 1999; R€aikk€onen,Katainen, et al., 2000), and maternal subjective evaluations have been shown to be relativelystable (Katainen, R€aikk€onen, Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 1997; Pesonen, R€aikk€onen, Keskivaara, &Keltikangas-J€arvinen, 2003; R€aikk€onen, Katainen, et al., 2000). Second, child�s temperament andmothers child-rearing were not measured concurrently with the dispositional optimism–pessi-mism. Whether childhood or current measures of temperament and rearing are more importantfor the levels of optimism–pessimism remains to be studied in the future.

In sum, to our knowledge this is the first longitudinal study extending from childhood toadulthood to assess the development of dispositional optimism–pessimism from the perspectivesof perceived temperament and mothering. Our results show that both perceived temperament andmaternal child-rearing attitudes may contribute to the development of dispositional optimism–pessimism. Although the current study provides information on developmental paths of dispo-sitional optimism, our model was able to explain 5% of the variance in dispositional optimismover 21 years: There is an evident need for other longitudinal studies that use standardizedmeasures to assess childhood temperament and that take into account other possible predictors.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Academy of Finland (grant number 50907SA) and EemilAaltonen Foundation.


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dispositional optimism: development over 21 years from the perspectives of perceived temperament and...

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