The Nature and Nurture of Child Surgency

"Children who are impulsive and exuberant—a trait known as "surgency"—often evoke harsh parenting. Parents who are warm, calm, and consistent support better emotion regulation in children high in surgency. Surgency effects on parenting reflect genetic or nature influences on the parent-child relationship. Positive parenting reflects environmental influences on the parent-child relationship. Children who are high in the temperament characteristic of surgency are often impulsive, approaching things they are excited about without pausing or thinking."

"Temperament is a set of biologically- and genetically-based characteristics that include emotional reactions, as well as efforts to modulate or regulate emotions and behaviors. Temperament characteristics include individual differences in emotion reactions, such as fear, frustration, as well as smiling and laughter. They include aspects of our self-regulation, including our ability to manage our attention, emotions, and behaviors."

Surgency is a temperament trait marked by reward orientation, exuberance, and impulsivity. Children high in surgency approach rewarding stimuli enthusiastically and often act before thinking. Their joyful, exuberant behaviors can be rewarding for parents but also challenging to manage. Such children frequently elicit harsher or more coercive parenting responses. Warm, calm, and consistent parenting supports better emotion regulation in high-surgency children. Surgency effects on parenting reflect genetic influences, whereas positive parenting reflects environmental influences. Temperament is biologically and genetically based and includes emotional reactions and self-regulation capacities.

Read at Psychology Today