Establishing construct validity for Openness-to-Experience in middle childhood: Contributions from personality and temperament

Kathrin Herzhoff*, Jennifer L. Tackett

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Controversy exists over the validity of child Openness-to-Experience (OE). To establish construct validity for child OE, data were collected for 346 children (51% girls) aged 9-to-10-years (M=9.92, SD=0.83). Parents completed questionnaires about their children's personality, temperament, and behavioral problems and competencies. Factor analyses of relevant personality and temperament facets revealed a robust OE factor made up of three facets: Intellect, Imagination, and Sensitivity. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was established via associations with other personality traits, and behavioral problems and competencies. Results underscore the importance of drawing from both temperament and personality literatures in attempts to establish construct validity for child trait domains as well as examining facet-level associations between OE and child behavior.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)286-294
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Research in Personality
Volume46
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2012

Keywords

  • Behavioral competencies
  • Child personality
  • Openness-to-experience
  • Psychopathology
  • Temperament

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Psychology(all)

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