One way to connect research with its clinical application is to examine the interplay between context and child. This article discusses the relationship between temperamental characteristics and the caregiving environment. During the first year of life, individual temperament differences in newborns are moderately stable and influence the nature of mother-infant interactions. The causes of individual differences in temperament can be classified into two major categories: (1) biological influences, and (2) environmental and other influences. The child's physical environment--namely, the level of chaos in the home--contributes to individual differences in temperament. The author describes the consequences of individual differences in temperament on caregiver-child relationships and behavioral and academic competence and discusses the implications for intervention of knowledge about a young child's temperament. The risk factors for one particular child and the interventions that work best for that child will depend, in part, on the child's individual characteristics--one of which is temperament.