Ivan Mervielde

Personality trait development from age 12 to age 18: longitudinal, cross-sectional, and cross-cultural analyses.

Three studies were conducted to assess mean level changes in personality traits during adolescence. Versions of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr., & R. R. McCrae, 1992a) were used to assess the 5 major personality factors. A 4-year longitudinal study of intellectually gifted students (N = 230) was supplemented by cross-sectional studies of nonselected American (N = 1,959) and Flemish (N = 789) adolescents. Personality factors were reasonably invariant across ages, although rank-order stability of individual differences was low. Neuroticism appeared to increase in girls, and Openness to Experience increased in both boys and girls; mean levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were stable. Results extend knowledge of the developmental curve of personality traits backward from adulthood and help bridge the gap with child temperament studies.

Five types of personality continuity in childhood and adolescence.

This study examines 5 types of personality continuity--structural, mean-level, individual-level, differential, and ipsative--in a representative population (N=498) and a twin and sibling sample (N=548) of children and adolescents. Parents described their children on 2 successive occasions with a 36-month interval using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (I. Mervielde & F. De Fruyt, 1999). There was evidence for structural continuity in the 2 samples, and personality was shown to be largely differentially stable. A large percentage had a stable trait profile indicative of ipsative stability, and mean-level personality changes were generally small in magnitude. Continuity findings were explained mainly by genetic and nonshared environmental factors.

Personality and interests as predictors of educational streaming and achievement

In this study Hollands RIASEC Model of vocational personalities and the Five‐Factor Model of personality are used (i) to assess individual differences among study majors and (ii) to predict educational achievement. A sample of 934 last‐year students who enrolled in different academic majors filled out Dutch/Flemish adaptations of the NEO‐PI‐R (Costa and McCrae, 1992) and the Self‐Directed Search (Holland, 1977; 1979). The results show that both models are useful to describe differences among different majors. Conscientiousness proves to be a general predictor of grades and study career. For the other Big Five dimensions, except for Agreeableness, major and/or gender specific relationships with educational outcomes are observed. Hollands interest dimensions are not related to educational achievement, except for some moderate gender or major specific correlations with the Investigative and the Artistic scales. Suggestions for future research regarding educational streaming and counselling are discussed.

The Structure of Maladaptive Personality Traits in Childhood: A Step Toward an Integrative Developmental Perspective for DSM-V

The present study describes the construction of a taxonomy of trait-related symptoms in childhood, the Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI), and examines the replicability of the taxonomys higher order structure across maternal ratings of referred (N = 205) and nonreferred (N = 242) children and self-ratings of adolescents (N = 453). The DIPSIs 4 higher order factors--that is, Emotional Instability, Disagreeableness, Introversion, and Compulsivity--showed clear correspondence with the dimensions of personality pathology found in adulthood (Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire; W. J. Livesley, 1990; Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality; L. A. Clark, 1993). These 4 factors can be further organized into 2 superfactors, representing Internalizing and Externalizing Traits, demonstrating empirical and conceptual relationships with psychopathology models in childhood and adulthood. The implications for the assessment and conceptualization of early trait pathology are discussed in the context of an integrative developmental perspective on the construction of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition.

Child Personality and Parental Behavior as Moderators of Problem Behavior: Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches

Parenting x Child Personality interactions in predicting child externalizing and internalizing behavior were investigated in a variable-centered study and a person-centered study. The variable-centered study used data from a 3-year longitudinal study of 600 children 7 to 15 years old at Time 1 and 512 children 10 to 18 years old at Time 2. Parents rated child personality (five factor model), negative control, positive parenting, and child problem behavior, whereas children rated parental behavior. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses showed significant Parenting x Child Personality (benevolence and conscientiousness) interactions, principally for externalizing behavior. The interactions were largely replicable across informants and across time. The person-centered study, which classified participants into 3 types, showed that negative parental control was more related to externalizing behavior for undercontrollers than for resilients. Negative parental control enhanced internalizing behavior for overcontrollers.

How are traits related to problem behavior in preschoolers? Similarities and contrasts between temperament and personality.

The lack of empirical research relating temperament models and personality hinders conceptual integration and holds back research linking childhood traits to problem behavior or maladjustment. This study evaluates, within a sample of 443 preschoolers, the relationships between children’s maladaptation and traits measured by three temperament models (Thomas and Chess, Buss and Plomin, and Rothbart), and a Five-Factor based personality model. Adequate reliabilities and expected factor structures are demonstrated for most scales. A joint principal component analysis combining 28 temperament and 18 personality scales indicates a six-factor model, distinguishing Sociability, Activity, Conscientiousness, Disagreeableness, Emotionality, and Sensitivity. Regression analyses reveal that although single temperament and personality scales explain from 23% to 37% of problem behavior variance, the six components explain from 41% to 49% and provide a clearer differentiation among CBCL-problem scales. This age-specific taxonomy refines and corroborates conclusions based on narrative reviews and furnishes a more balanced view of trait–maladjustment relationships.

THE VALIDITY OF THE BIG-FIVE AS A MODEL FOR TEACHERS' RATINGS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AMONG CHILDREN AGED 4-12 YEARS

Abstract A sample of 224 teachers rated 10 randomly selected children, aged 4–12, on a set of 25 bipolar scales, making the five factors: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and Intellect/Openness. Principal component analysis of ratings of kindergarten children (aged 4–6) reveals four of the five factors. The complete five-factor structure emerges from the ratings of primary school children. Conscientiousness accounts for a greater part of the variance than is usually observed in self-ratings of adults. Extraction and Varimax rotation of six factors splits the fifth factor into Intellect and Openness scales. Factor scores for Conscientiousness, Intellect, Openness and Extraversion significantly predict grade point average across three primary school age levels. Multiple regression of grade point average on factor scores indicates that the predictive validity increases from 0.67 to 0.79 from grades 1–6.

THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY AND HOLLAND'S RIASEC INTEREST TYPES

Abstract The relationships between the Big Five and Hollands RIASEC vocational interest model are investigated in a large sample of last-year students (N = 934) enrolled in different educational majors. In addition, the relationships between traits and Hollands concepts of congruency, consistency and differentiation are investigated, as well as the relations between traits and response sets to interest inventories. The five factors are assessed with a Dutch/Flemish adaptation of the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the RIASEC types are assessed with the Self-Directed Search (Holland, 1977, 1979). The correspondence between both models is investigated using correlational and exploratory factor analysis. The results show that all Big Five domain factors are significantly related to at least one or more RIASEC types, but not all RIASEC scales are correlated with the Big Five. Especially the Realistic scale and to a lesser extent the Investigative scale are not represented in the Big Five. The findings of this study replicate and extend former findings by Costa, McCrae and Holland (1984) and Gottfredson, Jones and Holland (1993). The results suggest that there is considerable overlap between both models, but that they also account for unique variance.

The relationship between Openness to Experience and political ideology

The relationship between Openness to Experience and political ideology was tested in two adult samples, one in Belgium (N=100) and one in Poland (N=146). A Belgian sample of students (N=105) and political party members (N=80) was also studied. In accordance with previous investigations, significant negative correlations between Openness and right-wing political ideology were obtained in the Belgian adult sample as well as in the student sample. A rather weak but significant negative relationship was obtained in the Polish sample. Contrary to expectations, the relationship between Openness and ideology was not replicated in the political party sample. Analyses of the Openness facet scores indicated significant relationships between the Openness to Fantasy and Actions facets and the ideological variables. Openness to Feelings and Aesthetics were much weaker correlates of political ideology and correlations between Openness to ideas and political ideology were inconsistent.

The consistency of personality type classification across samples and five‐factor measures

Caspi (1998), Asendorpf and Van Aken (1999), and Asendorpf et al. (2001) described three personality types derived from Q‐factor analysis of Q‐sorts or cluster analysis of multiple trait ratings. The types were labelled as resilients, undercontrollers, and overcontrollers and they were described in terms of averaged Five‐Factor Model (FFM) scores. The present study aimed to investigate the consistency and replicability of these prototypes across different FFM measures (i.e. HiPIC and NEO PI‐R) and ages (children and adolescents). In addition, the stability of prototype classification across a 3 year interval was examined. The types described by Caspi and Asendorpf and colleagues were only partially replicable and consistent across ages starting from HiPIC ratings, but not for NEO‐PI‐R ratings. Prototype classification was not stable across a 3 year interval. It is concluded that cluster replicability, consistency, and stability depend on sample characteristics and the multiple trait measures, although these difficulties do not necessarily limit the usefulness of the types for applied purposes. Copyright