This report summarizes three related studies of 3- to 5-year-old children's temperament and its relationship to their social competence, ability to solve interpersonal problems, locus of control, parent behavior and teacher/child interactions. Fifty-eight children, predominantly middle class participants in a laboratory preschool, and their parents were subjects for portions of this study. A trained observer used a "focal person" method to record interactions between the head teacher and individual children in two groups of 19 children. The 24 four-year-olds in this study were also rated by parents and teachers on the Thomas, Chess and Korn Temperament Scale, and were assessed according to the Stanford Preschool Internal-External Scale and the Preschool Interpersonal Problem Solving Scale. Another group of 20 children were subjects of a correlational study of parents' self-ratings on the Iowa Parent Behavior Inventory and ratings of their children on the temperament questionnaire and the Iowa Social Competency Scale. Results suggested differences between mothers and fathers in the ways they see and interpret their children and indicated that individual differences in children's behavorial style were related to different patterns of teacher/child interaction. There were also correlations between temperament variables and the children's sex, age, and birth order. Results also indicated either that the temperament questionnaire is unreliable across settings or that temperament is setting-specific. (CB)