Charles F. Halverson

Intensive and Extensive Peer Behavior: Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Analyses.

WALDROP, MARY F., and HALVERSON, CHARLES F., JR. Intensive and Extensive Peer Behavior: Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Analyses. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 19-26. Data on peer relations were obtained when a group of children were 2?z years old and again when they were 7?1/ years old. The children who at age 21/2 were friendly, involved with their peers, and able to cope with aggressive peers were likely, at age 7?1/, to spend many hours outside school with peers, to be socially at ease, and to be the ones who decided with whom they would play and what they would play. In other words, sociability at 21/ was positively related to sociability at 71/?. Social behavior at 71 had very different meanings for boys than for girls. The highly social boys, when with peers, tended to have extensive peer relations; that is, they usually played with groups of boys. The highly social girls, when with peers, tended to have intensive peer relations; that is, they usually played with only 1 other girl.

Personality Structure as Derived From Parental Ratings of Free Descriptions of Children: The Inventory of Child Individual Differences

Based on over 50,000 parental descriptors of children gathered in eight different countries, we used a combination of focus group sorting of descriptors in each country and factor analyses of instruments developed in four of the countries (United States, China, Greece, and the Netherlands) to describe children ages 3 to 12 years to select items for an instrument that would work well across countries to access personality. Through many factor analyses of indigenous items in each country, a core set of 141 items was used in three of the countries, with over 3000 parents responding to our instruments in China, Greece, and the United States. Much cross-comparative research analysis has resulted in 15 robust midlevel scales that describe the structures of parental descriptors that are common to the three countries. The data on the English (U.S.) sample are presented in detail. Links to temperament and behavior problems are presented and discussed.

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

Childhood personality is a rapidly growing area of investigation within individual differences research. One understudied topic is the universality of the hierarchical structure of childhood personality. In the present investigation, parents rated the personality characteristics of 3,751 children from 5 countries and 4 age groups. The hierarchical structure of childhood personality was examined for 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-factor models across country (Canada, China, Greece, Russia, and the United States) and age group (3-5, 6-8, 9-11, and 12-14 years of age). Many similarities were noted across both country and age. The Five-Factor Model was salient beginning in early childhood (ages 3-5). Deviations across groups and from adult findings are noted, including the prominent role of antagonism in childhood personality and the high covariation between Conscientiousness and intellect. Future directions, including the need for more explicit attempts to merge temperament and personality models, are discussed.

Minor physical anomalies and problem behavior in elementary school children.

The present study replicated and extended earlier findings on the relationship between minor physical anomalies and several classes of problem behavior in an unselected group of elementary school children. Teachers and peers were the judges of problem behavior. The problem checklist and a teacher ranking of hyperactivity were related to the incidence of minor physical anomalies for boys. A negative peer factor was also consistently related to the incidence of minor physical anomalies for both boys and girls. The behavior of high-anomaly girls was not easily characterized in terms of any one type of problem behavior. Sex differences and their implications are discussed.

Preschool children's preferences and recall for stereotyped versus nonstereotyped stories

This study assessed childrens preferences and recall for stereotyped versus non-stereotyped stories. The sample consisted of 32 preschool children, ranging in age from 60 months to 75 months. Four stories with boys or girls as the main character, each portraying typically masculine or feminine activities, were read to each child. Both preference and recall measures were obtained immediately and one day later. The hypothesis was confirmed that the stories were differentially preferred by boys and girls as a function of stereotyping of story. Girls preferred the story with a female character and a feminine activity and least preferred the story with a male character and a masculine activity. For boys, the reverse was true. The second choice for both boys and girls involved preference for activity, not sex of main character. A cross-lagged panel revealed that preference at Time 1 was causally related to recall at Time 2. The children remembered the most at Time 2 about the stories they liked the least at Time 1.

Personality, Marital Relationships, and Parenting in Two Generations of Mothers

It has been suggested that early experiences in families may be related to one’s parenting as an adult. Conceptual models were tested that investigated how personality and marital relationships are linked to parenting within and between generations. Eighty mother-grandmother pairs completed questionnaires concerning personality, marital relationships, and parenting. Restrictive and nurturant parenting of grandmothers was positively correlated with restrictive and nurturant parenting of mothers, but these relationships were attenuated in the presence of marital relationship and personality variables when structural equation models were tested. Personality characteristics and marital relationships were linked to parenting within and across generations.

Family Influences on Personality Development

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the family influences on personality development. There is an emerging crisis in the study of personality development because of the missing data on parent–child relationships. There are three crises in the personality development research: (1) the first real crisis— known as “bidirectional watershed,” is that it is not clear who might be responsible for childrens personality development. Maybe, just parent–child correlations reflected the action of constitutional characteristics of the child on parenting and not the other way around. (2) This crisis is related to transactional models that further complicate the picture of the family influence on personality development because of the elaboration of this model. The child and the caretaking environment were conceptualized as always in a state of mutual feedback; infant characteristics modified parental practices, which in turn modified infant behavior thereby, modifying parental behavior. The final crisis is within-family effects which are of recent origin. Nearly all of the studies of family and parental influences on the personality of the child are based on only one child per family. Family and parental influences focus on the mother, on the father, or on the family as a unit.

Behavior problems in elementary school children a follow-up study.

Two-year follow-up data for an ostensibly normal sample of children who had been previously characterized on a number of behavior problem dimensions by their teachers and peers were analyzed. In addition, 1-year follow-up data were presented for a group of extreme behavior children from the same school. The behavior dimensions of Distractibility and Conduct Problem were fairly stable over 2 years for girls and boys. In addition, Inadequacy—Immaturity was stable for girls and may mark more severe behavior problems for young girls. Behavior problems of young girls were more predictive of later achievement difficulties while behavior problems of boys were more prdictive of peer and teacher difficulty. Finally, teachers clinical judgment was demonstrated to be useful for indexing behavior for hyperactive boys.

Temperament Factors as Longitudinal Predictors of Young Adult Personality

While there is a general consensus that temperament forms the enduring, biologically based foundation of personality and that this biological basis should imply some continuity within the individual across time, there is a limited literature exploring linkages between these areas. The purpose of this article was to provide an initial assessment of the relation between a two-factor model of temperament in early/middle childhood and the five-factor model of personality in late adolescence/young adulthood. Data were gathered from 115 children who had participated in a longitudinal study of early/middle childhood and who provided follow-up data 15 years later. Significant linkages were found between the two time periods. At the facet level, temperament in early and middle childhood accounted for an average of 32% of the variance in personality in late adolescence/early young adulthood. At the domain level, temperament accounted for an average of 34% of the variance.

Adolescent Personality: A Five-Factor Model Construct Validation.

The purpose of this study was to investigate convergent and discriminant validity of the five-factor model of adolescent personality in a school setting using three different raters (methods): self-ratings, peer ratings, and teacher ratings. The authors investigated validity through a multitrait-multimethod matrix and a confirmatory factor analysis correlated trait, uncorrelated method model. With the exception of Emotional Stability, each analysis demonstrated similar patterns and together provided support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the five-factor model structure of adolescent personality. However, among the three raters, self-ratings of personality provided a comparatively weaker method for assessing adolescent personality. The influences of agreement between self and other raters are discussed in relation to contrast, perceiver, and target effects; expert observer effects; the degree of acquaintanceship; and the effect of the social context.