Abstract

This study is a short-term longitudinal panel study which has followed the changes in self-competence of 6th-grade boys and girls who were in the period of transition in terms of growth spurt, physic-psychological change, and middle school entrance. Especially, the gender difference in perceived self-competence is focused with influences of social support from parents and peers and temperament defined as a behavioral style. In a longitudinal correlational analysis, it is a common result in boys and girls that social competence is significantly correlated with peer support and academic competence is correlated with parental support. However, there is a gender difference in the influence of social support on global self-esteem; that is, boys's self-esteem is significantly correlated with social support, however, girls's self-esteem is not. In addition, gender difference is shown in the bivariate relationship between self-competence and temperament; that is, boys's self-competence is highly correlated with distractability and persistence, however, girls's self-competence is highly correlated with general activity level. Finally, this study compares the Goodness-of-Fitness model of temperament with the Personological model and proposes a new methodology of assessing peer demand for temperament In a frequency analysis of significant correlations, a difference of predicaability between two models is not found.