RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to identify different physical and mental characteristics among three common Sasang types, Tae-eum, So-yang, and So-eum (except scarce type, Tae-Yang) in preschoolers, to improve constitutional diagnoses. METHODS: Our study included 65 boys and 67 girls from six kindergartens in South Korea. The number of children who were categorized as Tae-Yang, Tae-Eum, So-Yang, and So-Eum types were 1, 56, 40, and 35, respectively. We measured height, weight, mid-parental height, predicted adult height, ponderal index (PI), and findings from the junior temperament and character inventory 3 to 6. RESULTS: The Tae-eum type exhibited higher weight percentiles and PIs than the other types (p < 0.001), and the So-eum type displayed higher harm avoidance (HA) scores than the Tae-eum type (p = 0.033). CONCLUSIONS: Children with high PIs and low HA scores have a higher probability of being classified as the Tae-eum type than as the So-eum type.