Optimising the education and care experiences of children with 'difficult' temperament

This thesis asked whether more temperamentally reactive or difficult children are more sensitive to Early Childhood and Care (ECEC) environments than less reactive children. The aim was to assess what forms of ECEC provision best support more reactive children. The study analysed data from the national Effective Early Educational Experiences (E4Kids). Children with reactive temperament had less behavioural difficulties in classrooms with higher quality instruction but more when instructional quality was low. The findings underscore the importance of higher quality ECEC environments for temperamentally vulnerable children and the possibility that temperamentally reactive children are "barometers" of ECEC quality more generally.