The Associations Between Temperament and Learning: A Meta-Analysis from an Integrative Perspective

Early temperament has been shown to have a profound impact on various life outcomes including academic performance, however, the nature of the relationship between temperamental dimensions and learning abilities is still unclear. The aim of this meta-analysis and review is to investigate the empirical findings on the associations between temperament and learning using an integrative model. The 72 studies yielded 594 effect sizes (N = 27,568; age = 9 months to 16 years; 49.53% male; 71.7% White, 15.03% Latinx, 9.9% Black, 1.8% Asian, 1.2% mixed race, 0.4% Native American). Attention/Persistence exhibited the strongest positive relation with learning (r = 0.26). Affiliation was also positively associated with learning (r = 0.16), while Frustration (r = -0.12), Behavioral Inhibition (r = -0.07) and Activity Level (r = -0.15) were negatively correlated with it. Moderation analyses indicated that mean age, rater of temperament and study quality significantly influenced the strength and direction of these associations.