Congruence

Congruence, in the most general sense, refers to a state of agreement, correspondence, or similarity. In many areas of psychological literature and research (e.g., vocational psychology, child temperament theory), the term congruence is sometimes used interchangeably with fit and typically refers to a match between individual characteristics or values and environmental demands, which is hypothesized to influence a wide variety of psychological phenomena, including satisfaction, adaptation, motivation, engagement, commitment, and personality consistency. The term agreement often is used interchangeably with congruence.

With regard to early childhood education, practitioners and researchers have focused on the construct of congruence as it relates to school–family relationships and collaboration and have adopted a definition of congruence as the continuity or common approach among home and school contexts. Using this definition, ...