The temperament of pre-teens at risk of educational and social exclusion

Alina Daniela Moanţă; Florin Pelin; Corina Ciolcă; Marian Costin Nanu; Georgeta Mitrache; Dan Badea; Lucian Mihai Ciuntea

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173175

The temperament of pre-teens at risk of educational and social exclusion

Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 14:14:1173175. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173175. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, National University of Physical Education and Sport, Bucharest, Romania.
² Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, University of Craiova, Craiova, Romania.
³ Faculty of Movement, Sport and Health Sciences, Vasile Alecsandri University of Bacău, Bacău, Romania.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Vulnerability and poverty increase the educational and social exclusion of pre-teens. The goal of the present study was to identify the temperamental characteristics of pre-teens at risk of educational and social exclusion, depending on type of vulnerability and gender.

Methods: For the study, 329 students (167 boys and 162 girls) at risk of early school leaving were involved and grouped into four categories: preadolescents from single-parent families, students with an absent parent (for example, is working abroad), socially assisted students, and Roma pre-teens (socially assisted). To assess temperament the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (EATQ-R) was used.

Results: The results underline that in the case of the four super factors and for the two behavioral scales investigated, the scores (at group level) are, generally, within the average limits. The study highlights the importance of specialists to increase, in the case of pre-teens at risk of early school leaving, Effortful Control, and to decrease Negative Affectivity (which includes frustration and fear) and Depressive Mood. Significant differences between vulnerable boys and girls were observed, in the case of Surgency, Affiliation, and Depressive Mood. Also, using the Mann-Whitney (U) test and an independent sample t-test, gender-dependent differences were highlighted (considering the EATQ-R scales), in the case of each type of vulnerability. Using single-factor multivariate analysis of variances, the differences between preadolescents, depending on the type of vulnerability, were presented.

Discussion: In the case of Surgency, boys registered significantly higher scores than girls, while in the case of Affiliation and Depressive Mood girls obtained higher values. Gender- and type of vulnerability-dependent differences in temperament were discussed in the case of pre-teens, and showed a temperament-conscious education is necessary in future parental education and teacher training.

Keywords: pre-teens; pre-teens temperament; school dropout; social exclusion; temperament.

Grants and funding

This research did not received any funding in terms of publishing fee. The study was carried out within the project: Sustainable social and educational integration through sports activities—PNP001 2019-2023 and the preadolescents included in the project, as well as the experts, received free transport, accommodation, and meals in the camps (at the seaside and mountains) organized within the project. The National University of Physical Education and Sport, Bucharest was the project promoter and Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, was the project partner. This project was funded through the Romanian Social Development Fund, by the Romanian Government and Norwegian Grants 2014–2021 through the program entitled: Local development and poverty reduction, increasing Roma inclusion.