Parents or peers may differ in their preferences and aversions for particular temperamental characteristics and, as such, in their attitudes about whether a given temperament attribute creates difficulty in social interactions. This set of attitudes is termed an "ethnotheory" of temperamental difficulty. This study sought to determine: (a) whether adolescents' temperaments better match, or fit, the ethnotheories of parents or peers; and (b) whether adolescents whose temperaments reflect a good fit with parental and/or peer ethnotheories are better adjusted than those adolescents whose behavior reflects a poor fit. Using data from the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study, these issues were addressed by assessing parents' and peers' ethnotheories for early adolescent temperament over the course of the sixth grade. Results indicated that although parents and peers had different ethnotheories, adolescents' temperaments were at levels which would not cause actual difficulty for either parents or peers. Finally, temperament-ethnotheory fit, especially in regard to parents, was related more to adolescent adjustment in the home, in the school, and with peers than was temperament alone.
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