Personality in middle childhood: A hierarchical structure and longitudinal connections with personality in late adolescence

Jennifer L. Tackett*, Robert F. Krueger, William G. Iacono, Matt McGue

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research on the structure of personality in middle childhood, while advancing, is still in the early stages of development. In this study, we employed a group of 1563 twins to elucidate the hierarchical structure of personality in middle childhood and provide connections to established personality traits in adult populations. Our results provide evidence for a higher-order structure of personality in middle childhood that maps on to recent findings in adult populations supporting hierarchical relationships among 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-factor models of personality. In addition, primary higher-order personality traits rated by parents at age 11 showed substantial predictive validity for analogous traits rated by self at age 17. We discuss our results within the context of developing a convergent hierarchical taxonomy of personality in middle childhood and the importance of multi-informant investigations.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1456-1462
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Research in Personality
Volume42
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2008

Keywords

  • 5-Factor model
  • Childhood personality
  • Personality development
  • Personality structure

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • General Psychology

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