Early childhood temperament, maternal monitoring, reactive criminal thinking, and the origin(s) of low self-control

•Two hypotheses tested in 2,697 children from the NLSY-C•Difficult temperament predicted low self-control net maternal supervision•Factors other than direct parenting important in development of low self-control•Low self-control predicted reactive criminal thinking but not vice versa•Reactive criminal thinking important in linking low self-control to delinquency

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine whether difficult temperament is capable of predicting low self-control after controlling for parenting factors (maternal monitoring) and whether low self-control precedes reactive criminal thinking in the development of a delinquent lifestyle.MethodsTwo hypotheses were tested in 2,697 children (1,365 boys, 1,332 girls) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth–Child study using a non-experimental partial cross-lagged longitudinal panel design.ResultsIn support of the first hypothesis, difficult temperament at age 0-2 years predicted low self-control at age 10-11 years when maternal monitoring at age 6-9 years was controlled. In support of the second hypothesis, the path from temperament at age 0-2 years to maternal monitoring at age 6-9 years to low self-control at age 10-11 years to reactive criminal thinking at age 12-13 years was significantly stronger than the path from temperament to maternal monitoring to reactive criminal thinking to low self-control.ConclusionsThese findings indicate that factors other than direct parenting, such as temperament, may be important in the development of low self-control and that antisocial conduct (low self-control) precedes antisocial cognition (reactive criminal thinking) in the development of a delinquent or criminal lifestyle.