The hierarchical structure of childhood personality in five countries: continuity from early childhood to early adolescence

Though Forced, Still Valid: Examining the Psychometric Performance of Forced-Choice Measurement of Personality in Children and Adolescents

Unveiling the roles personality plays during childhood and adolescence necessitates its accurate measurement, commonly using traditional Likert-type (LK) scales. However, this format is susceptible to various response biases, which can be particularly prevalent in children and adolescents, thus likely undermining measurement accuracy. Forced-choice (FC) scales appear to be a promising alternative because they are largely free from these biases by design. However, some argue that the FC format may not perform satisfactorily in children and adolescents due to its complexity. Little empirical evidence exists regarding the suitability of the FC format for children and adolescents. As such, the current study examined the psychometric performance of an FC measure of the Big Five personality factors in three children and adolescent samples: 5th to 6th graders (N = 428), 7th to 8th graders (N = 449), and 10th to 11th graders (N = 555). Across the three age groups, the FC scale demonstrated a better fit to the Big Five model and better discriminant validity in comparison to the LK counterpart. Personality scores from the FC scale also converged well with those from the LK scale and demonstrated high reliability as well as sizable criterion-related validity. Furthermore, the FC scale had more invariant statements than its LK counterpart across age groups. Overall, we found good evidence showing that FC measurement of personality is suitable for children and adolescents.

Editorial: Baby Steps on Challenging Ground: Understanding How Early-Life Irritability Impacts Mental Health Outcomes

Irritability is increasingly recognized as an important phenotype in early life. Since the groundbreaking longitudinal work in infants with difficult temperament by Chess and Thomas,1 conceptualizations of early irritability have grown and matured in the literature. Today, multiple measures of early irritability are available with a focus on dispositional anger, frustration, and negative reactivity. Additionally, investigators have mapped the normative developmental trajectory of irritability, which features a peak in temper tantrums in early childhood.2 This latter phenomenon creates an interesting challenge for research interrogating the clinical relevance of early irritability for later mental health in youth. How do we ascertain what is clinically meaningful in early life against the backdrop of wide individual and developmental variation in irritability?

Validation of a community-based application of the Portuguese version of the survey on Social and Emotional Skills - Child/Youth Form

Introduction

Children and adolescents' social and emotional skills have been gaining attention in diverse settings. With over 100 conceptual frameworks available, there is now a common move toward framing these skills as social and emotional learning (SEL), assuming that they are not only amiable to development, but also malleable to change as a product of intervention. As such, there is a strong need for a comprehensive measure to effectively evaluate such skills, validated for different age groups in children and young people, and applicable to both educational contexts and community settings.

Methods

This paper presents the validation of the Portuguese adaptation of the Child/Youth form of the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), in the scope of the Gulbenkian Academies for Knowledge initiative with a sample of 7,831 participants between 8 and 17 years old (M = 11.79, SD = 2.94).

Results

Results show that the measure has good internal consistency and sensitivity, while also being sensitive to change over time. Preliminary factor analysis shows promise, although further research is necessary.

Discussion

Discussion reflects on the value of the Child/Youth form of the SSES as a comprehensive measure to be used by community and educational professionals to monitor skill development and improve their work on SEL.

Understanding the Leaders of Tomorrow: The Need to Study Leadership in Adolescence

Leadership traits and behaviors are observed early in human development, and although an improved understanding of youth leadership would usefully inform many real-world contexts (e.g., education, parenting, policy), most empirical work on leadership has been limited to adult populations. The purpose of the current article is to add a developmental perspective to leadership research that has so far been absent. Here, we (a) highlight adolescence as a critical developmental period for leadership emergence and development, (b) argue that leadership among youths is poorly understood and critically understudied, (c) provide exemplars of synergy between research on leadership and adolescent development that are ripe for focused inquiry, and (d) underscore some of the positive consequences of accelerating empirical research on leadership in adolescence, including implications for a deeper understanding of leadership in adult working populations.

The CPAP-Q: A Q-Sort Assessment Procedure for assessing traits and emerging personality patterns in childhood

INTRODUCTION

Different from psychopathological assessment, personality assessment considers an individual's entire range of functioning. The evaluation of personality during childhood is more complex than assessment in other life phases, but crucial for understanding the risk and protective factors for personality pathology. This paper has two main goals. The first goal is to describe the CPAP-Q, including its development and features. The CPAP-Q is a 200-item clinician-report tool that can be used by therapists of any orientation. The second goal is to provide additional preliminary data on the validity of the CPAP-Q.

METHOD

A sample of 257 clinicians completed the CPAP-Q to assess the personality features of 257 children (aged 4-11 years) who had been in their care for 2-12 months. Clinicians also completed a clinical questionnaire to provide information on themselves, their child patients, and their patients' families; and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) to evaluate patients' behavioral problems and social competencies.

RESULTS

The CPAP-Q seems to represent a useful assessment tool with good concurrent validity. Correlations between the CPAP-Q and the CBCL revealed strong convergent and divergent validity. Furthermore, the associations between personality prototypes and syndromic scales concurred with the clinical literature.

CONCLUSION

The CPAP-Q is a new tool for assessing child personality, from a clinical perspective. It is effective at identifying personality styles, even during childhood.

The Relationship between Children’s Trait Emotional Intelligence and the Big Five, Big Two and Big One Personality Traits

The irrefutable repercussions of personality and socio-emotional development on children’s learning and psychological well-being justify the relevance for the educational context of delving into the relationship between those two constructs. Therefore, the research presented in this article investigates the link between trait EI and the B5, B2, and B1 (or GFP) personality traits in children between 9 and 13 years of age. We used the Spanish adaptation of the BFQ-NA (Big Five Personality Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents) and the CDE_9-13 (Emotional Development Questionnaire for primary education) with a sample of 259 primary school students. The results showed correlations between the two Big personality factors (B2) and the Big One personality factor (B1) with trait EI. However, the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and the Big Five personality model (B5) was not very high; only two of the five personality traits significantly predicted trait EI. Thus, our results differ from studies conducted with adults, but instead, it is similar to studies conducted with children. Finally, this study reinforces the thesis that trait EI can be considered a synonym of the GFP (General Factor Personality). Consequently, it implies designing and implementing learning and socioemotional development programs during the school years to promote adaptability and social efficacy.

Childhood temperament and adulthood personality differentially predict life outcomes

Debate has long surrounded whether temperament and personality are distinct sets of individual differences or are rather two sides of the same coin. To the extent that there are differences, it could indicate important developmental insights concerning the mechanisms responsible for linking traits with outcomes. One way to test this is to examine the joint and incremental predictive validity of temperament and personality in the same individuals across time. Using a longitudinal sample spanning 3 decades starting at infancy and followed up to 37 years old (N = 7081), we ran a series of Bayesian generalized linear models with measures of childhood temperament and adult-based personality to predict outcomes in several life domains. Results indicated that while each set of individual differences were often related to the same outcomes, there were instances in which temperament provided incremental validity above adult personality, ranging from 2 to 10% additional variance explained. Personality in childhood explained the most variance for outcomes such as cognitive ability and educational attainment whereas personality performed best for outcomes such as health status, substance use, and most internalizing outcomes. These findings indicate childhood and adulthood assessments of personality are not redundant and that a lifespan approach is needed to understand fully understand life outcomes.

Age of acquisition of personality terms: Implications for personality theory

Analysis of the age of acquisition (AoA) of personality terms represents a genetic method for the study of the individual personality lexicon and offers a potential alternative to correlational analysis for identifying the fundamental personality descriptors among the thousands of terms that appear in language. In the present study, the relationship between AoA, word frequency, word desirability, and factor loading in the Big Five and Hexaco models of 274 and 408 personality adjectives was analyzed. It was found that young children (2nd graders or younger) acquire personality terms that represent traits at the core of the broad personality factors in the Big Five and Hexaco models slightly earlier than words that represent more peripheral traits. In older children beyond second grade, the correlation between factor loading and AoA is weak. Words that describe the broad openness and stability/emotionality aspects of personality are learned later than words for the other broad factors. Word frequency (in book texts) and desirability have a weak negative correlation with AoA. It is hypothesized that the AoA of a personality term reflects the importance of the corresponding trait for children and may be used as one criterion for ranking facet level traits independent of the broad factors.

Psychodiagnostic Chart-Child (PDC-C): a valid and clinically sensitive diagnostic tool for patient-tailored intervention planning

The reliable clinical-diagnostic evaluation of child patients is crucial. The present research sought to examine the validity of the Psychodiagnostic Chart-Child (PDC-C) in assessing children's mental functioning and personality organization, according to the framework of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, Second Edition (PDM-2). A sample of 209 clinicians assessed 209 children (aged 4-11 years) who had been in their care between 2-12 months, using the PDC-C. Each clinician also completed a clinical questionnaire to provide demographic information, the Child Behavior Checklist to evaluate children's behavioral problems and social competences, and the Childhood Personality Assessment Q-Sort measure to assess children's emerging personality patterns. The findings suggest that the PDC-C is a valid diagnostic tool that considers children's full range of functioning. Moreover, the measure has good sensitivity and appears clinically useful in differentiating between certain clinical populations according to psychological characteristics. The PDC-C could promote more accurate assessment during childhood and inform the development of individualized therapies. One of the advantages of the tool is its ability to capture individual variations in child functioning (illuminating strengths and psychological vulnerabilities), even within children in the same diagnostic group. Of note, additional research is needed to establish the utility of PDC-C ratings in predicting clinically relevant constructs and to monitor the processes and outcomes of interventions.

Development of a 50-Item Abridged Form of the Junior Spanish Version of the NEO Questionnaire (JS NEO-A50)

Abstract. The aim of this psychometric study was to construct an abridged 50-item form, 10 for each of the five factors of personality, of the Junior Spanish version of the NEO-PI-R (JS NEO-A50). Two separate studies were conducted. In Study 1, 400 high school students completed two personality scales to examine the factor structure (exploratory factor analysis), convergent validity, and reliability of the JS NEO-A50. In Study 2, an independent sample of 385 adolescents completed the JS NEO-A50 and several outcome measures to replicate the factor structure (exploratory structural equation model) and examine criterion validity, respectively. The five-factor structure found in Study 1 was satisfactorily replicated in the second, independent sample. Sources of reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) and validity (convergent) were adequate. Also, the outcome measures assessed in Study 2 were related to personality traits in the expected direction. Life satisfaction was significantly predicted by emotional stability; symptoms of behavioral problems were predicted by low scores in both agreeableness and conscientiousness while internalizing emotional symptoms were mainly predicted by emotional instability; finally, academic performance was mainly predicted by conscientiousness. We conclude that the JS NEO-A50 is a sound inventory to measure the five broad personality domains in Spanish-speaking adolescents.

Validity and utility of Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): II. Externalizing superspectrum

The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP) is an empirical effort to address limitations of traditional mental disorder diagnoses. These include arbitrary boundaries between disorder and normality, disorder co-occurrence in the modal case, heterogeneity of presentation within dis-orders, and instability of diagnosis within patients. This paper reviews the evidence on the validity and utility of the disinhibited externalizing and antagonistic externalizing spectra of HiTOP, which together constitute a broad externalizing superspectrum. These spectra are composed of elements subsumed within a variety of mental disorders described in recent DSM nosologies, including most notably substance use disorders and "Cluster B" personality disorders. The externalizing superspectrum ranges from normative levels of impulse control and self-assertion, to maladaptive disinhibition and antagonism, to extensive polysubstance involvement and personality psychopathology. A rich literature supports the validity of the externalizing superspectrum, and the disinhibited and antagonistic spectra. This evidence encompasses common genetic influences, environmental risk factors, childhood antecedents, cognitive abnormalities, neural alterations, and treatment response. The structure of these validators mirrors the structure of the phenotypic externalizing superspectrum, with some correlates more specific to disinhibited or antagonistic spectra, and others relevant to the entire externalizing superspectrum, underlining the hierarchical structure of the domain. Compared with traditional diagnostic categories, the externalizing superspectrum conceptualization shows improved utility, reliability, explanatory capacity, and clinical applicability. The externalizing superspectrum is one aspect of the general approach to psychopathology offered by HiTOP and can make diagnostic classification more useful in both research and the clinic.

Phenotypic and genetic markers of psychopathology in a population-based sample of older adults

Although psychiatric phenotypes are hypothesized to organize into a two-factor internalizing-externalizing structure, few studies have evaluated the structure of psychopathology in older adults, nor explored whether genome-wide polygenic scores (PGSs) are associated with psychopathology in a domain-specific manner. We used data from 6003 individuals of European ancestry from the Health and Retirement Study, a large population-based sample of older adults in the United States. Confirmatory factor analyses were applied to validated measures of psychopathology and PGSs were derived from well-powered genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Genomic SEM was implemented to construct latent PGSs for internalizing, externalizing, and general psychopathology. Phenotypically, the data were best characterized by a single general factor of psychopathology, a factor structure that was replicated across genders and age groups. Although externalizing PGSs (cannabis use, antisocial behavior, alcohol dependence, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) were not associated with any phenotypes, PGSs for major depressive disorder, neuroticism, and anxiety disorders were associated with both internalizing and externalizing phenotypes. Moreover, the variance explained in the general factor of psychopathology increased by twofold (from 1% to 2%) using the latent internalizing or latent one-factor PGSs, derived using weights from Genomic Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), compared with any of the individual PGSs. Collectively, results suggest that genetic risk factors for and phenotypic markers of psychiatric disorders are transdiagnostic in older adults of European ancestry. Alternative explanations are discussed, including methodological limitations of GWAS and phenotypic measurement of psychiatric outcome in large-scale population-based studies.

Using a Thin Slice Coding Approach to Assess Preschool Personality Dimensions

A large literature assessing personality across the lifespan has used the Big Five as an organizing framework, with evidence that variation along different dimensions predicts aspects of psychopathology. Parent reports indicate that these dimensions emerge as early as preschool, but there is a need for objective, observational measures of personality in young children, as parent report can be confounded by the parents' own personality and psychopathology. The current study observationally coded personality dimensions in a clinically enriched sample of preschoolers. A heterogeneous group of preschoolers oversampled for depression (N = 299) completed 1-8 structured observational tasks with an experimenter. Big Five personality dimensions of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience were coded using a "thin slice" technique with 7,820 unique ratings available for analysis. Thin slice ratings of personality dimensions were reliably observed in preschoolers ages 3-6 years. Within and across-task, consistency was also evident, with consistency estimates higher than found in adult samples. Divergent validity was limited, with coders distinguishing between three (extraversion/openness; agreeableness/conscientiousness; and neuroticism) rather than five dimensions. Personality dimensions can be observationally identified in preschool-age children and offer reliable estimates that stand across different observational tasks. Study findings highlight the importance of observational approaches to assessing early personality dimensions, as well as the utility of the thin slice approach for meaningful secondary data analysis.

Age and gender differences in personality traits from early childhood through adolescence

OBJECTIVE

Most research on personality development has employed self-report questionnaires and concerned individuals older than 10 years. This is the first study to examine mean-level age differences in personality traits from early childhood to late adolescence in the non-Western cultural context.

METHOD

Personality was measured in two community samples of parent reports of 2-18-year-old children (N = 4,330) and self-reports of 10-19-year-old adolescents (N = 4,663) from Russia by the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version (ICID-S) at the three levels of the hierarchy, the two higher order traits, the Big Five, and lower order traits.

RESULTS

Across childhood, the Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism traits increased, and the Extraversion and Openness traits decreased. In adolescence, parent-reported Conscientiousness traits increased and Neuroticism traits decreased, whereas youth-rated Alpha and Agreeableness decreased in middle adolescence. There were small gender differences in trait levels and age trends. Parents and youths did not agree on gender differences in age trends for Neuroticism and Extraversion.

CONCLUSION

The findings support personality maturation from early childhood to late adolescence, with the exception of increasing Neuroticism across childhood, and provide some evidence for the disruption in personality maturation in adolescence. Parents and adolescents may have different perspectives on personality development.

Neuroanatomical correlates of impulsive traits in children aged 9 to 10

Impulsivity refers to a set of traits that are generally negatively related to critical domains of adaptive functioning and are core features of numerous psychiatric disorders. The current study examined the gray and white matter correlates of five impulsive traits measured using an abbreviated version of the UPPS-P (Urgency, (lack of) Premeditation, (lack of) Perseverance, Sensation-Seeking, Positive Urgency) impulsivity scale in children aged 9 to 10 (N = 11,052) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Linear mixed effect models and elastic net regression were used to examine features of regional gray matter and white matter tractography most associated with each UPPS-P scale; intraclass correlations were computed to examine the similarity of the neuroanatomical correlates among the scales. Positive Urgency showed the most robust association with neuroanatomy, with similar but less robust associations found for Negative Urgency. Perseverance showed little association with neuroanatomy. Premeditation and Sensation Seeking showed intermediate associations with neuroanatomy. Critical regions across measures include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, lateral temporal cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex; critical tracts included the superior longitudinal fasciculus and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency showed the greatest neuroanatomical similarity. Some UPPS-P traits share neuroanatomical correlates, while others have distinct correlates or essentially no relation to neuroanatomy. Neuroanatomy tended to account for relatively little variance in UPPS-P traits (i.e., Model R2 < 1%) and effects were spread throughout the brain, highlighting the importance of well powered samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

From Description to Explanation: Integrating Across Multiple Levels of Analysis to Inform Neuroscientific Accounts of Dimensional Personality Pathology

Dimensional approaches to psychiatric nosology are rapidly transforming the way researchers and clinicians conceptualize personality pathology, leading to a growing interest in describing how individuals differ from one another. Yet, in order to successfully prevent and treat personality pathology, it is also necessary to explain the sources of these individual differences. The emerging field of personality neuroscience is well-positioned to guide the transition from description to explanation within personality pathology research. However, establishing comprehensive, mechanistic accounts of personality pathology will require personality neuroscientists to move beyond atheoretical studies that link trait differences to neural correlates without considering the algorithmic processes that are carried out by those correlates. We highlight some of the dangers we see in overpopulating personality neuroscience with brain-trait associational studies and offer a series of recommendations for personality neuroscientists seeking to build explanatory theories of personality pathology.

Big five personality traits and common mental disorders within a hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology: A longitudinal study of Mexican-origin youth

The present study (a) tested whether a structure of common mental disorders within the hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology was invariant from late childhood to adolescence in a sample of Mexican-origin youth, (b) examined the developmental course of psychopathology at different levels of the hierarchy, and (c) tested the degree to which changes in psychopathology were associated with changes in the Big Five personality domains. Results were consistent with the longitudinal hierarchical invariance of common mental disorders from age 12 to 17 (n = 674). Further, initial levels of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability were positively associated with lower initial levels of a higher order factor of psychopathology, and increases in extraversion and decreases in neuroticism were associated with decreases in a higher order factor of psychopathology, which captured the general tendency for externalizing, internalizing, and attention-hyperactivity-related dimensions of psychopathology to correlate. Results of the present study indicate that a hierarchical model of common mental disorders extends to Mexican-origin youth and that developmental change in Big Five personality are related to developmental change in psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence for two genetically distinct pathways to co-occurring internalizing and externalizing problems in adolescence characterized by negative affectivity or behavioral inhibition

Unique pathways to adolescents' co-occurring internalizing/externalizing problems, a severe and common form of psychopathology, remain poorly delineated; this paucity of knowledge impedes the development of personalized interventions. We examined established measures of genetic risk and early childhood temperamental dimensions to clarify potentially distinct pathways to adolescents' co-occurring internalizing/externalizing problems. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial of a family-based intervention. The study employed multiple informants and methods, including observer ratings of toddlers' negative affectivity and behavioral inhibition, and primary caregiver ratings of toddlers' inhibitory control; internalizing and aggression polygenic risk scores (PRS) based on prior meta-genome-wide association studies (GWAS); and parents' and teachers' reports of adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems. Higher levels of the aggression PRS indirectly predicted primary caregiver- and teacher-reported co-occurring problems relative to all other groups through greater early childhood negative affectivity. Lower levels of the aggression PRS and higher levels of the internalizing PRS indirectly predicted co-occurring problems relative to the externalizing "only" and low problem groups (primary caregivers only) through greater early childhood behavioral inhibition. Findings suggest two different genetic pathways to co-occurring problems that could lead to distinct prevention and intervention efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Correlates between Five-Factor Model traits and the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines dimensions in an adolescent clinical sample

OBJECTIVE

Extensive evidence supports the association between Five-Factor Model (FFM) traits involving high neuroticism, low agreeableness and low conscientiousness and borderline personality disorder (BPD) characteristics, particularly among adults in community samples. However, studies supporting this link in adolescent samples are relatively limited, and few studies have examined the links between FFM traits and specific dimensions of BPD, such as those distinguished by the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R). In this study, we examined associations between FFM traits and BPD characteristics in a group of clinical and non-clinical adolescents.

METHOD

We evaluated the correlations between the FFM personality traits, as measured by the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory and BPD characteristics as measured by the DIB-R in a sample of adolescents (N = 162).

RESULTS

Consistent with previous research, BPD dimensions were highly associated with high neuroticism, low conscientiousness, low agreeableness and to a somewhat lesser extent with low extraversion. Specificity of associations between FFM traits and DIB-R section scores was limited, in part because of strong intercorrelations among DIB-R scores.

DISCUSSION

These results imply that evidence about trait-BPD associations in adult samples generalizes well to adolescents. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Kids becoming less alike: A behavioral genetic analysis of developmental increases in personality variance from childhood to adolescence

Recent work in personality development has indicated that the magnitude of individual differences in personality increases over child development. Do such patterns reflect the differentiation of individuals by genotype, an increasing influence of environmental factors, or some (interactive) combination of the two? Using a population-based sample of over 2,500 twins and multiples from the Texas Twin Project, we estimated age trends in the variances in self- and parent-reported measures of the Big Five personality traits between Ages 8 and 18 years. We then estimated age trends in the genetic and environmental components of variance in each measure. Individual differences in personality increased in magnitude from childhood through mid-adolescence. This pattern emerged using both children's self-reports and ratings provided by their parents, and was primarily attributable to increases in the magnitude of genetic influences. Most of the increasing genetic variance appeared nonadditive, pointing to the possibility that developmental processes tend to make genetically similar individuals disproportionately more alike in their personality traits over time. These findings could reflect increasing or accumulating effects of trait-by-trait interactions; person-by-environment transactions, whereby genetically similar people are disproportionally likely to experience similar environments; the activation of dominant genes across developmental transitions (e.g., puberty); or some combination of these three processes, among other factors. Theories of personality development will need to accommodate these descriptive findings, and longitudinal, genetically informed designs are needed to test some of the specific hypotheses springing from this study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Components of the Triarchic Model of Psychopathy and the Five-Factor Model Domains Share Largely Overlapping Nomological Networks

The triarchic model of psychopathy is a recently developed model of psychopathy that identifies three primary domains: Boldness, Meanness, and Disinhibition. These traits overlap substantially with general and pathological five-factor model of personality (Boldness = low Neuroticism + high Extraversion; Meanness = low Agreeableness; Disinhibition = low Conscientiousness). In the current study (total N = 1,266), we compare domains from the triarchic model of psychopathy and five-factor model in relation to self- and informant-report of external criteria (e.g., pathological traits, antisocial behavior), and quantified their absolute similarity using a profile-matching approach. The corresponding traits from these models show large interrelations and very similar convergent and divergent relations, suggesting that unaltered traits from one can be considered excellent representations of the other. Results are discussed in terms of the benefits of using a unifying trait-based model to study psychopathy, as well as personality disorders more broadly.

Examining the Hierarchical Influences of the Big-Five Dimensions and Anxiety Sensitivity on Anxiety Symptoms in Children

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), namely the fear of anxiety symptoms, has been described as a precursor of sub-threshold anxiety levels. Sexton et al. (2003) posited that increased AS would arise from an elevated neuroticism and that both would act as vulnerability factors for panic disorder (PD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms. Accordingly, this study aimed to (1) evaluate the applicability of this model to a pediatric population and (2) examine the influences of the other Big-Five personality dimensions on the four lower-order dimensions of AS (cognitive, physical, control, and physical) and on social phobia (SP), separation anxiety disorder (SAD) and depression symptoms. 200 children (104 girls) aged between 8 and 12 years old (mean age = 132.52 months, SD = 14.5) completed the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (Silverman et al., 1991), the Big Five Questionnaire for Children (Barbaranelli et al., 2003), and the Revised’s Children Anxiety and Depression Scale (Chorpita et al., 2000). Regression analyses confirmed that AS and neuroticism together significantly predicted the presence of PD, OCD, and GAD symptoms but also SP, SAD, and depression symptoms. Moreover, neuroticism interacted with extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness to significantly predict SP, GAD, and depression. Surprisingly, the global AS score was only predicted by agreeableness, while AS dimensions also specifically related to openness. Finally, AS dimensions did not predict the presence of specific anxiety symptoms. To conclude, the predicting model of anxiety symptoms in children sets neuroticism and AS on the same level, with an unexpected influence of agreeableness on AS, raising the importance of other trait-like factors in the definition of such models. Moreover, AS should be considered as a unitary construct when predicting the presence of anxiety symptoms in children. Future interventions must consider these associations to help children detect and recognize the symptoms of their anxiety and help them to interpret them correctly.

Neuroanatomical Correlates of Hierarchical Personality Traits in Chimpanzees: Associations with Limbic Structures

A converging literature has revealed the existence of a set of largely consistent, hierarchically organized personality traits, that is broader traits are able to be differentiated into more fine-grained traits, in both humans and chimpanzees. Despite recent work suggesting a neural basis to personality in chimpanzees, little is known with regard to the involvement of limbic structures (i.e., amygdala and hippocampus), which are thought to play important roles in emotion. Using saved maximum likelihood estimated exploratory factor scores (two to five factors) in the context of a series of path analyses, the current study examined associations among personality dimensions across various levels of the personality hierarchy and individual variability of amygdala and hippocampal grey matter (GM) volume in a sample of captive chimpanzees (N=191). Whereas results revealed no association between personality dimensions and amygdala volume, a more nuanced series of associations emerged between hippocampal GM volume and personality dimensions at various levels of the hierarchy. Hippocampal GM volume associated most notably with Alpha (a dimension reflecting a tendency to behave in an undercontrolled and agonistic way) at the most basic two-factor level of the hierarchy; associated positively with Disinhibition at the next level of the hierarchy (“Big Three”); and finally, associated positively with Impulsivity at the most fine-grained level (“five-factor model”) of the hierarchy. Findings underscore the importance of the hippocampus in the neurobiological foundation of personality, with support for its regulatory role of emotion. Further, results suggest the importance of the distinction between structure and function, particularly with regard to the amygdala.

A psychometric evaluation of the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ) in a Swedish sample

Personality is generally considered to be biologically founded in temperament, and temperamental qualities have proven to be relatively stable across childhood and into adulthood (Caspi, Roberts & Shiner, ). Temperament predicts important developmental outcomes such as academic performance (Muris, ), and social functioning (Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie & Reiser, ), and it has also been found to be strongly related to the etiology and maintenance of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children (Muris, Meesters & Blijlevens, ; Nigg, ). To allow for the possibility of making early interventions, identification of potential risk factors (such as temperamental dispositions) is of great importance (Rettew & McKee, ). As temperament is multidimensional and has many different manifestations, parents and teachers are valuable sources in providing information about children's temperament (Rothbart & Bates, ; Tackett, Slobodskaya, Mar et al., ), and caregiver questionnaires are frequently used in child personality research. However, such questionnaires are only useful if their reliability and validity have been established. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ; Simonds, Kieras, Rueda & Rothbart, ), which focuses specifically on the ages between 7 and 11 years. The TMCQ is the least validated of the Rothbart measures, and although reliability data have been presented, together with some validity data, for a computerized self-report version of the questionnaire (Simonds & Rothbart, ), information about the reliability and validity for the caregiver version is scant. In the present paper, we report such data for a Swedish sample.

Development of self-inflicted injury: Comorbidities and continuities with borderline and antisocial personality traits

Self-inflicted injury (SII) is a continuum of intentionally self-destructive behaviors, including nonsuicidal self-injuries, suicide attempts, and death by suicide. These behaviors are among the most pressing yet perplexing clinical problems, affecting males and females of every race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, and nearly every age. The complexity of these behaviors has spurred an immense literature documenting risk and vulnerability factors ranging from individual to societal levels of analysis. However, there have been relatively few attempts to articulate a life span developmental model that integrates ontogenenic processes across these diverse systems. The objective of this review is to outline such a model with a focus on how observed patterns of comorbidity and continuity can inform developmental theories, early prevention efforts, and intervention across traditional diagnostic boundaries. Specifically, when SII is viewed through the developmental psychopathology lens, it becomes apparent that early temperamental risk factors are associated with risk for SII and a range of highly comorbid conditions, such as borderline and antisocial personality disorders. Prevention efforts focused on early-emerging biological and temperamental contributors to psychopathology have great potential to reduce risk for many presumably distinct clinical problems. Such work requires identification of early biological vulnerabilities, behaviorally conditioned social mechanisms, as well as societal inequities that contribute to self-injury and underlie intergenerational transmission of risk.

From Elementary School to Midlife: Childhood Personality Predicts Behavior During Cognitive Testing over Four Decades Later

The current study uses a prospective, longitudinal design and lifespan perspective to understand how child personality relates to directly observed adult behavior during cognitive testing. Teacher assessments of child Big Five personality in elementary school were correlated with directly observed behaviors during a videotaped cognitive test four decades later. Past work suggested Openness and Conscientiousness may relate to task-relevant academic behaviors. Childhood Openness was associated with several behaviors, even after controlling for participant's cognitive performance. Childhood Conscientiousness was also related to behavior, but not as expected. Other Big Five ratings were not reliably related to behavior. The study examined personality stability in a unique way and suggests a further examination of how Openness in children manifests in later behavior.

A New Twist on Old Questions: A Life Span Approach to the Trait Concept

OBJECTIVE

We examine three cardinal concerns in personality psychology from a life span perspective: trait structure, trait stability, and trait mechanisms that account for the predictive utility of traits. We draw on previously published and new findings from the Hawaii Longitudinal Study of Personality and Health, as well as work by others.

METHOD

The Hawaii study provides a unique opportunity to relate a comprehensive assessment of participants' childhood personality traits (over 2,000 children, mean age 10 years) to their adult personality traits and other self-report outcomes in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and their clinically assessed health at mean age 51.

RESULTS

Our analyses have demonstrated that the Big Five can be used to describe childhood personality in this cohort. The stability of the Big Five from childhood teacher assessments to adult self- or observer reports is modest and varies from Big Five trait to trait. Personality mechanisms of life span health behavior and life span trauma experience explain some of the influence of childhood Conscientiousness on adult health outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

A life span approach highlights the dynamic nature of traits and their long-term predictive utility, and it offers numerous directions for future research.

Measuring child personality when child personality was not measured: Application of a thin-slice approach

Recent efforts have demonstrated that thin-slice (TS) assessment-or assessment of individual characteristics after only brief exposure to that individual's behaviour-can produce reliable and valid measurements of child personality traits. The extent to which this approach can be generalized to archival data not designed to measure personality, and whether it can be used to measure personality pathology traits in youth, is not yet known. Archival video data of a parent-child interaction task was collected as part of a clinical intervention trial for aggressive children (N = 177). Unacquainted observers independently watched the clips and rated children on normal-range (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience) and pathological (callous-unemotional) personality traits. TS ratings of child personality showed strong internal consistency, valid associations with measures of externalizing problems and temperament, and revealed differentiated subgroups of children based on severity. As such, these findings demonstrate an ecologically valid application of TS methodology and illustrate how researchers and clinicians can extend their existing data by measuring child personality using TS methodology, even in cases where child personality was not originally measured. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Adolescent Personality as Risk and Resiliency in the Testosterone-Externalizing Association

Previous investigations of testosterone and externalizing behavior have provided mixed findings. We tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory personality moderates the testosterone-externalizing behavior association in adolescence. Parents reported on their 13- to 18-year-old (N = 106, M_age = 16.01, SD = 1.29) children's personalities and psychopathology. Testosterone was measured via drool samples. As hypothesized, personality moderated the testosterone-externalizing behavior association. High testosterone predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors, but only for adolescents low in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Also, personality acted as a resiliency factor: high levels of Conscientiousness, in the presence of high testosterone, predicted lower levels of rule breaking. Results highlight how endogenous factors, such as personality, may interact with testosterone, and emphasize the relevance of including personality moderators in future research.

Processes of Personality Development in Adulthood: The TESSERA Framework

The current article presents a theoretical framework of the short- and long-term processes underlying personality development throughout adulthood. The newly developed TESSERA framework posits that long-term personality development occurs due to repeated short-term, situational processes. These short-term processes can be generalized as recursive sequence of Triggering situations, Expectancy, States/State expressions, and Reactions (TESSERA). Reflective and associative processes on TESSERA sequences can lead to personality development (i.e., continuity and lasting changes in explicit and implicit personality characteristics and behavioral patterns). We illustrate how the TESSERA framework facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of normative and differential personality development at various ages during the life span. The TESSERA framework extends previous theories by explicitly linking short- and long-term processes of personality development, by addressing different manifestations of personality, and by being applicable to different personality characteristics, for example, behavioral traits, motivational orientations, or life narratives.

Constructing a short form of the hierarchical personality inventory for children (HiPIC): the HiPIC-30

Children's personality traits are invaluable predictors of concurrent and later mental and physical health. Several validated longer inventories for assessing the widely recognized Five-Factor Model of personality in children are available, but short forms are scarce. This study aimed at constructing a 30-item form of the 144-item Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC) (Mervielde & De Fruyt, ). Participants were 1543 children aged 6-12 years (sample 1) and 3895 children aged 8 years (sample 2). Sample 1 completed the full HiPIC, from which we constructed the HiPIC-30, and the Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach, ). Sample 2 completed the HiPIC-30. The HiPIC-30 personality domains correlated over r = .90 with the full HiPIC domains, had good Cronbach's alphas and correlated similarly with CBCL behaviour problems and gender as the full HiPIC. The factor structures of the HiPIC-30 were convergent across samples, but the imagination factor was not clear-cut. We conclude that the HiPIC-30 is a reliable and valid questionnaire for the Five-Factor personality traits in children. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Investigation of Five Types of Personality Trait Continuity: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Study of Spanish Adolescents from Age 12 to Age 15

The present study investigated five types of personality trait continuity using two measurement waves of Spanish adolescents (N = 234). Personality traits were measured with the short form of the Junior Spanish NEO-PI-R (JS NEO-S) at ages 12 and 15. The results showed stability in the personality trait structure, as well as decreases in the mean levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness. The results also showed moderate rank-order consistency. Individual-level changes were more pronounced for neuroticism and conscientiousness. Approximately 90% of the participants showed ipsative consistency. The findings showed some personality trait changes occurred from age 12 to 15, but the changes were less marked than expected during this period of biological and social development. Our results also support the disruption hypothesis, as we found dips in conscientiousness and, to a lesser degree, agreeableness.

Pictorial Personality Traits Questionnaire for Children (PPTQ-C)-A New Measure of Children's Personality Traits

In order to adjust personality measurements to children's developmental level, we constructed the Pictorial Personality Traits Questionnaire for Children (PPTQ-C). To validate the measure, we conducted a study with a total group of 1028 children aged between 7 and 13 years old. Structural validity was established through Exploratory Structural Equation Model (ESEM). Criterion validity was confirmed with a multitrait-multimethod analysis for which we introduced the children's self-assessment scores from the Big Five Questionnaire for Children. Despite some problems with reliability, one can conclude that the PPTQ-C can be a valid instrument for measuring personality traits, particularly in a group of young children (aged ~7–10 years).

Subfactors of oppositional defiant disorder: converging evidence from structural and latent class analyses

BACKGROUND

Structural models of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms have gained empirical support but await greater empirical scrutiny on issues such as reconciliation between competing models, evidence for gender differences, and delineation of external correlates. More extensive validation evidence is particularly necessary in consideration of their incorporation in psychiatric nomenclature.

METHODS

We fitted previously proposed, but competing, models to ODD symptoms assessed with the Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (Shaffer et al., 2000, J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 39, 28) in a community sample and then fitted the best-fitting model in a replication sample (combined N = 730, M_age  = 9.89, SD = 0.75). Analyses also examined potential classes based on resulting subfactors, gender differences, longitudinal associations with later behavioral problems, and concurrent personality associations.

RESULTS

Burke's (2010) two-factor model composed of Irritability and Oppositionality subfactors best fit the data. Irritability and Oppositionality showed convergent and divergent patterns of association with personality traits at T1 and with externalizing and internalizing problems at T2. Latent class analyses revealed three classes (low severity, irritable/combined, and oppositional) which showed parallel divergence in externalizing and internalizing problem comorbidity. These findings were largely robust across gender and samples.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings support Irritability/Oppositionality subfactors of ODD in two mixed-gender samples, demonstrate strong evidence for a lack of gender differences in such subfactors, and demonstrate their convergent and divergent validity in emergent latent classes, later behavioral problems, and personality correlates.

The contribution of genetics and early rearing experiences to hierarchical personality dimensions in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)

A reliable literature finds that traits are related to each other in an organized hierarchy encompassing various conceptualizations of personality (e.g., Big Three, five-factor model). Recent work suggests the potential of a similar organization among our closest nonhuman relative, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), with significant links to neurobiology suggesting an evolutionarily and neurobiologically based hierarchical structure of personality. The current study investigated this hierarchical structure, the heritability of the various personality dimensions across levels of the hierarchy, and associations with early social rearing experience in a large sample (N = 238) of socially housed, captive chimpanzees residing in 2 independent colonies of apes. Results provide support for a hierarchical structure of personality in chimpanzees with significant associations with early rearing experiences. Further, heritabilities of the various dimensions varied by early rearing, with affective dimensions found to be significantly heritable among mother-reared apes, whereas personality dimensions were largely independent of relatedness among the nursery-reared apes. Taken together, these findings provide evidence for the influence of both genetic and environmental factors on personality profiles across levels of the hierarchy, supporting the importance of considering environmental variation in models of quantitative trait evolution.

Personality Traits in Childhood and Adolescence

Like adults, children and adolescents can be described in terms of personality traits: characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. We review recent research examining how youths’ specific behavioral tendencies cohere into broader traits, how these traits develop across childhood and adolescence, and how they relate to important biological, social, and health outcomes. We conclude that there are both key similarities and key differences between youth and adult personality traits, that youths’ personality traits help shape the course of their lives, and that a full understanding of youth personality traits will require additional research at the intersection of personality, developmental, and clinical psychology.

A Review of the Direct and Interactive Effects of Life Stressors and Dispositional Traits on Youth Psychopathology

Stressors and dispositional traits have been implicated in youth psychopathology; however, the direct effects from stressors or traits alone may be insufficient for explaining maladaptive development. Evidence for the impact of stressors and dispositional traits has largely progressed within separate lines of inquiry, resulting in disunited etiological models and variable empirical support. Existing research on the concurrent effects of stressors and traits has also been hindered by several conceptual issues-including mixed evidence for specificity effects, inconsistent operationalization of stressors, and inadequate coverage of dispositional traits across development-making it difficult to draw conclusions across studies. The current review aims to unify these independent lines of inquiry by evaluating prior research according to three theoretical frameworks: (1) additive, (2) diathesis-stress, and (3) social push models. Implications for assessment, prevention, and intervention efforts in clinical child and adolescent psychopathology are discussed.

Normal personality traits, rumination and stress generation among early adolescent girls

This study examined associations between personality and stress generation. Expanding upon prior work, we examined (a) the role of Positive Emotionality (PE), Negative Emotionality (NE), and Constraint (CON), and their lower-order facets, as predictors of acute and chronic interpersonal stress generation; (b) whether personality moderated effects of rumination on stress generation; and (c) whether personality increased exposure to independent (uncontrollable) stress. These questions were examined in a one-year study of 126 adolescent girls (M age = 12.39 years) using contextual stress interviews. NE predicted increases in acute and chronic interpersonal stress generation, but not independent stress. NE, CON and affiliative PE each moderated the effect of rumination on chronic interpersonal stress generation. These effects were driven by particular lower-order traits.

The Little Six Personality Dimensions From Early Childhood to Early Adulthood: Mean-Level Age and Gender Differences in Parents' Reports

The present research pursues three major goals. First, we develop scales to measure the Little Six youth personality dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, and Activity. Second, we examine mean-level age and gender differences in the Little Six from early childhood into early adulthood. Third, we examine the development of more specific nuance traits. We analyze parent reports, made using the common-language California Child Q-Set (CCQ), for a cross-sectional sample of 16,000 target children ranging from 3 to 20 years old. We construct CCQ-Little Six scales that reliably measure each Little Six dimension. Using these scales, we find (a) curvilinear, U-shaped age trends for Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness, with declines followed by subsequent inclines; (b) monotonic, negative age trends for Extraversion and Activity; (c) higher levels of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness among girls than boys, as well as higher levels of Activity among boys than girls; and (d) gender-specific age trends for Neuroticism, with girls scoring higher than boys by mid-adolescence. Finally, we find that several nuance traits show distinctive developmental trends that differ from their superordinate Little Six dimension. These results highlight childhood and adolescence as key periods of personality development.