SOCIAL AND TEMPERAMENTAL INFLUENCES ON CHILDRENS OVERESTIMATION OF THEIR PHYSICAL ABILITIES - LINKS TO ACCIDENTAL INJURIES

This study examined social and temperamental influences on children's judgments about their physical abilities and relations between tempera mental characteristics, ability overestimation, and accidental injurie s. Six-and 8-year-olds first observed a peer succeed or fail on a set of physical tasks and then made judgments about their ability to perfo rm those same physical tasks. At both ages, children who first watched a peer fail on the tasks made more conservative judgments about their own abilities than did children who watched the peer succeed. The rel ations between temperamental characteristics and judgment ability diff ered for the two ages. An aggregated temperament measure of Surgency/U ndercontrol was related to judgment accuracy for 6-year-olds and to de cision times for 8-year-olds. Likewise, the relations between temperam ent, ability overestimation, and accidental injuries differed for the two age groups. Ability overestimation was related to accidental injur ies for 6-year-old boys whereas temperamental characteristics were rel ated to accidental injuries for 8-year-olds. These findings suggest th at both the factors that put children at risk for accidental injuries and the relations between temperamental characteristics and cognitive abilities change with development. (C) 1997 Academic Press.