How Goodness-of-Fit is related to Problem Behaviors
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How Goodness-of-Fit is related to Problem Behaviors
The goodness of fit refers to the relationship between a child’s social environment and temperament. The primary component of ensuring that one’s child feels proud and happy about themselves and remains successful throughout their lives is by creating and establishing an environment that fully accommodates their temperaments. The goodness of fit can be viewed through two dimensions, based on a character’s interaction with their environment and their interactions with the people within their environment. Some character’s temperament and their environment typically fit together, while in others, they do not.
When there is perfect coordination between the environmental demands and expectations and a character’s behaviors and capabilities, this is regarded as a good fit. On the other hand, if the natural and social environment fails to match the character’s temperaments, then problems become inherent (Wagers & Kiel, 2019). Such failure poses a significant risk of difficulties and challenges for a person. For instance, a child who is typically slow in eating would be in daily problems if they get admitted to a school where lunch is served promptly and taken under a specified time. The child would have challenging moments at school because of clashing with teachers who are usually vigilant on the tight school schedules. Similarly, the parents would be frustrated with their child if they come back home with food they should have consumed at school.
The goodness of fit has a profound impact on a child’s behavioral outcomes. The emotional fit explains how a child’s temperament is accepted by people in their environment depending on how much people think the child is likable or not. Most adults have distinguished and typically unique temperaments that might sometimes differ from their children. This uniqueness in characters is prevalent even amongst teachers and caregivers. In the school setting, the relationship between the student’s temperament and their teachers and parents might impact their performance in school (Lahdelma, Tolonen, Kiuru, & Hirvonen, 2020). The differences in behaviors might be why some parents and teachers struggle with a child and ultimately leads to the rise of problem behaviors in children.
References
Lahdelma, P., Tolonen, M., Kiuru, N., & Hirvonen, R. (2020, October). The Role of Adolescents’ and Their Parents’ Temperament Types in Adolescents’ Academic Emotions: A Goodness-of-Fit Approach. In Child & Youth Care Forum (pp. 1-22). Springer US.
Wagers, K. B., & Kiel, E. J. (2019). The influence of parenting and temperament on empathy development in toddlers. Journal of Family Psychology, 33(4), 391.