Configural Approaches to Temperament Assessment: Implications for Predicting Risk of Unintentional Injury in Children Jack W. Berry and David C. Schwebel University of Alabama at Birmingham ABSTRACT This study used two configural approaches to understand how temperament factors (surgency/extraversion, negative affect, and effortful control) might predict child injury risk. In the first approach, clustering procedures were applied to trait dimensions to identify discrete personality prototypes. In the second approach, two- and three-way trait interactions were considered dimensionally in regression models predict- ing injury outcomes. Injury risk was assessed through four measures: lifetime prevalence of injuries requiring professional medical attention, scores on the Injury Behavior Checklist, and frequency and severity of injuries reported in a 2-week injury diary. In the prototype analysis, three temperament clusters were obtained, which resembled resilient, overcon- trolled, and undercontrolled types found in previous research. Under- controlled children had greater risk of injury than children in the other groups. In the dimensional interaction analyses, an interaction between surgency/extraversion and negative affect tended to predict injury, espe- cially when children lacked capacity for effortful control. Unintentional injury accounts for over a third of all deaths of chil- dren under the age of 15 years and for a large majority of all nonfatal childhood injuries (National Center for Injury Prevention and Con- trol, 2008). It is understandable that research on childhood risk for injury is a national priority for public health and safety. Thanks to Jodie Plumert for sharing data that were collected in collaboration with David Schwebel. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jack W. Berry, UAB Injury Control Research Center, Suite 401, 933 19th Street South, University of Al- abama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294-2041. E-mail: Jack.Berry@ccc. uab.edu. Journal of Personality 77:5, October 2009 r 2009, Copyright the Authors Journal compilation r 2009, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00586.x