Ecological validity of laboratory assessments of child temperament: evidence from parent perspectives.

The structure, stability, and validity of child temperament traits have primarily been examined with parent questionnaire methods, but laboratory methods represent an important complement. However, the novel setting and contrived scenarios of laboratory methods and their low convergence with parent questionnaire methods have led some to question their ecological validity. We tested this assumption by employing parents as sources of information regarding the ecological validity of laboratory assessments of child temperament.