Maja Zupančič

Self-reported Adherence Behavior in Adolescent Hypertensive Patients: The Role of Illness Representations and Personality

OBJECTIVE This exploratory study examined the role that illness representations and personality play in the various adherence behaviors of adolescents diagnosed with essential hypertension. METHODS The participants were 97 hypertensive adolescents. They completed self-report questionnaires pertaining to (1) demographic and medical data, (2) adherence, (3) illness representations, and (4) personality. Medical charts were also assessed. RESULTS The hierarchical regression analyses indicated that: (1) conscientiousness, agreeableness, and perception of treatment effectiveness account for a significant amount of variance in general adherence; (2) perception of treatment effectiveness is predictive of overall specific adherence; and (3) for adherence to most of the individual specific regimen recommendations, illness representations are more predictive compared to personality dimensions. CONCLUSIONS The personality domains of conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and illness representation dimensions (treatment control, concern, and emotional burden) were shown to predict adherence behaviors in adolescent hypertensive patients differentially. Study implications and limitations are discussed.

Child Personality in Slovenia and Russia Structure and Mean Level of Traits in Parent and Self-Ratings

The present study compares structure, mean trait levels, and development of child personality in Slovenia and Russia, using parent and self-reports on the Inventory of Child Individual Differences. Evidence for the Five Factor Model of child and adolescent personality structure is demonstrated across age groups, genders, and countries. In comparison with Russians, Slovenian children are rated higher on Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness. Some of the differences are observed even among toddlers, and these differences increase over age, suggesting that they do not arise solely in the process of socialization. Cultural differences are more pronounced for parent reports than for adolescent self-reports, suggesting that a part of these differences may reflect cultural influences on parent ratings.

Predicting Achievement in Mathematics in Adolescent Students: The Role of Individual and Social Factors

The study examined individual factors and social factors that influence adolescent students’ achievement in mathematics. The predictive model suggested direct positive effects of student intelligence, self-rated openness and parental education on achievement in mathematics, whereas direct effects of extraversion on measures of achievement were negative. Indirect positive effects of intelligence, self-rated conscientiousness, student-perceived mathematics teacher’s press for understanding and mastery goal, and a negative effect of student-rated parental academic pressure on course achievement were mediated through the students’ self-efficacy in mathematics. The findings highlight the important role that individual differences in ability and personality, as well as student perceptions of parent and teacher academically related variables, play in the students’ performance in mathematics.

Personality Traits as a Predictor of Academic Achievement in Adolescents.

The study examined the predictive value of adolescents’ personality trait ratings by different groups of informants in explaining academic achievement [grade point average (GPA)] while controlling for students’ sex and their mothers’ education. The Inventory of Child/Adolescent Individual Differences was employed as a measure of students’ personality traits at the end of elementary schooling (mean age = 14.7 years) and two years later when the participants attended secondary schools. The trait ratings were obtained through self‐, maternal and peer reports at both measurement occasions. They explained substantial portions of unique variance in the students’ GPA concurrently, and over time. Ratings by each of the three groups of informants had an incremental validity over one another in predicting school grades. Among personality variables, conscientiousness and low extraversion were consistently predictive of GPA.

Consistency in adult reports on child personality over the pre-school years

Three types of temporal and cross-observer consistency in adult reports on child personality were investigated over three waves of a longitudinal study. Employing the Inventory of Child Individual Differences (Halverson et al., 2003), 3-year-olds were rated separately by mothers, fathers, and pre-school teachers. The children were re-assessed one and two years later. The teacher-perceived organization of child personality, which resulted in conscientiousness – openness/intellect, extraversion – emotional stability, and disagreeableness domains appeared stable over time, whereas parental ratings also yielded congruent components across the spouses: extraversion, conscientiousness, disagreeableness, and neuroticism. Mother – father agreement was high across the traits and broadband domains in each wave, while the consistency of the parent – teacher trait assessments was lower. The child scores showed a high rank – order stability and small normative change over the pre-school years. Most of the mean-level change patterns as reflected through adult ratings were similar across the informants, indicating age-increases in extraversion, conscientiousness, and the respective marker traits.

Factors of social adjustment to school: child’s personality, family and pre‐school

The role of child’s characteristics (gender, cognitive ability, mother‐perceived personality traits), family environment (maternal education, self‐reported parenting practices) and pre‐school experience (at least three years vs. no experience) in social adjustment to school, reflected through teacher reports on social competence and internalising and externalising behaviours, was investigated with six‐year‐olds (N = 366). Three blocks of factors, i.e. child, family and pre‐school, explained up to 19% of variance in social adjustment with child’s characteristics accounting for the major part. Family variables contributed significant, though small, portions of variance to social competence and internalising behaviour over and above the child factors. Pre‐school experience was additionally predictive of lower incidence of internalising behaviour and more frequent externalising behaviour.

Personality types as derived from parental reports on 3‐year‐old

Three internally replicable clusters of personality were empirically derived in a sample of 3‐year‐old children who were assessed by mothers and fathers using the Inventory of Child Individual Differences (Halverson et al., 2003). The clusters were structurally consistent across the parental data sources and did not, except for resilients, fully overlap with the under‐ and overcontrolled types. The average children scored within less than half of a standard deviation from the mean across the ICID dimensions, while the wilful 3‐year‐old appeared extraverted and disagreeable. Child type membership was moderately consistent across the spouses and it predicted teacher‐reported child social behaviour. Compared to the dimensions, the predictive utility of the types was lower, but considerably improved with consistently classified children. Copyright

The age of entry into high-quality preschool, child and family factors, and developmental outcomes in early childhood

SUMMARY Three blocks of factors were considered as predictors of four year old childrens (N = 286) personality, non-verbal intelligence and social behaviour in preschool: (a) personality characteristics at time 1 (T1) when the participants were three years old; (b) parental education and parenting practices measured at T1; and (c) age of childs entry to high-quality preschool. Child personality was rated separately by mothers, fathers and preschool teachers employing The Inventory of Child Individual Differences (Halverson et al., 2003) at T1 and one year later, at time 2 (T2). At both times, the teachers also assessed the childrens social behaviour, completing The Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation Scale (LaFreniere et al., 2001). Both of the parents independently filled in The Family Environment Questionnaire (Zupancic et al., 2004) at T1 and The Coloured Progressive Matrices (Raven et al., 2001) were individually administered to each child at T2 to obtain his/her non-verbal intelligence score. Child personality at age three predicted personality characteristics and social behaviour at age four, but not non-verbal intelligence. The family characteristics and the childs age of entry did not significantly improve this prediction. Furthermore, the child characteristics (personality, non-verbal intelligence and social behaviour) were compared between children who entered preschool early, when a one year parental leave was over, those who remained in parental care for the next two years, and those who attended non-parental care prior to preschool entry at age three. At T1, the early entry group scored lower on internalizing and higher on externalizing behaviour than did the remaining late entry groups. These differences appeared non-significant at T2.

Development and Construct Validation of the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (ITEA)

This article presents the construction, exploratory dimensionality analysis (Study 1), and validation (Study 2) of the self-report and 36-item Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (ITEA). It is the first instrument to measure different aspects of individuation (in relation to mother and father) specifically in emerging adulthood. The construct validity of the final 5-factor structure (Support Seeking, Connectedness, Intrusiveness, Self-Reliance, and Fear of Disappointing the Parent) was satisfactory. The results of multigroup analyses demonstrated that the factor structure is stable across male and female emerging adults for ITEA assessments in relation to both mother and father. The ITEA scales also show good internal consistency and concurrent validity against Emotional, Conflictual, and Functional Dependence scales of the Psychological Separation Inventory.

The role of early childhood personality in the developmental course of social adjustment

This study explored children, preschool, and family characteristics that contribute to individual differences in the developmental trajectories of social competence and internalizing and externalizing behavior. Teachers reported on personality and social adjustment of 304 children at ages 3, 4, 5, and 6 years. Predictors of social adjustment included: (1) children’s gender and the ratings of extraversion, conscientiousness, disagreeableness, and neuroticism; (2) maternal and paternal education, and parent-reported parenting practices at the beginning of the study; and (3) the child’s age of entry to preschool. Child social adjustment was most strongly predicted by teacher-rated child personality. The change in a child’s rank-order position on social competence was related to the change in the rank-order position on extraversion; the change in internalizing behavior was related particularly to a change in neuroticism, and the change in externalizing behavior especially to a change in disagreeableness. Specific family variables and the child’s age at the time of entry into preschool played a minor but statistically significant role.