Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study aimed to elucidate the influence of temperament on vocabulary development of infants from low-income families, using data from the Early Head Start Research Evaluation Study (N = 970). Longitudinal structural equation modeling was used to evaluate contributions of latent temperament, with sustained attention, engagement of parent, and negativity (reverse-scored) as indicators, and emotion regulation as predictors of vocabulary knowledge at ages 14, 24, and 36 months. Latent temperament predicted both vocabulary knowledge and emotion regulation skills at subsequent time points, whereas emotion regulation was non-significant in predicting vocabulary knowledge after controlling for temperament. Although descriptive analyses indicated greater vulnerability of boys than girls across measures (e.g., lower vocabulary scores), structural relations appeared to be invariant across genders. Modeling temperament as a latent variable accounts for the common variance shared across constructs. Future research should aim to uncover how distinct facets of temperament influence vocabulary development trajectories.