Temperament Characteristics and Clinical Outcomes in Young Children with Diabetes Mellitus

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Abstract
Thirty-four children with diabetes and their mothers were studied to investigate the relationship between individual differences, as measured via the temperament construct, and disease-related indices. Analysis of variance revealed that child characteristics such as age, sex, duration of disease, higher activity level, and shorter attention-span were related to behavioral compliance. Multivariate discriminant analyses revealed that combinations of certain child and maternal characteristics were highly efficient in distinguishing between children in adequate vs poor glycemic control and behavioral compliance. The optimum model for classification of regimen adherence used a combination of child characteristics. The optimum model for glycemic control used both child and parent temperament characteristics.