Temperament and parent-child relationships were measured in a random sample of 776 children followed over a 10-year period. The goal was to determine whether temperament evolves differently for boys versus for girls, and if so, whether parenting influences gender-specific development. Gender-specific parenting effects on the evolution of difficult temperament were found: low effects were not present. A possible explanation for these findings is proposed. The contribution of these findings to understanding biology-environment interactions in causing sex differences in development is discussed.
Key Words: temperament parent-child relations sex-differences epidemiology longitudinal