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.

The Inventory of Children's Individual Differences: development and validation of a short version.

As more researchers utilize the Five-factor model (FFM) of personality with children and adolescents, the need for instruments designed specifically for use with children and adolescents increases. In the United States, the 108-item Inventory of Children's Individual Differences (ICID; Halverson et al., 2003), has provided researchers with an age and culture neutral instrument designed specifically to assess the FFM of personality in children and adolescents, ages 2 to 15, using parental, nonparental, or self-reports. This article presents a shorter, 50-item version of the ICID (the ICID-S) that maintains the levels of validity and reliability previously established for the full instrument.

Change in depressive symptoms in the Baltimore longitudinal study of aging.

Depressive symptoms have been represented in the research and clinical literature in terms of both an episodic phenomenon and as enduring individual differences. We investigated depressive symptoms longitudinally in a sample of older adults. Participants were 737 individuals (M(Age) = 73 years initially, 39% women) in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging who provided biennial Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression data on up to five occasions over an 8-year period. We found both trait and state-residual variability, with symptoms increasing longitudinally on all subscales and accounting for an approximately 1-point increase per decade. Trait-like variability accounted for at least two thirds of the reliable variance. Interindividual differences were consistent over time, but occasion-specific variability diminished across occasions.

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.

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.

A re-examination of the validity and reliability of the School-Age Temperament Inventory.

BACKGROUND: As a construct, temperament provides a framework for understanding differences among individuals in reaction to their life experiences. The measurement of the construct concerns both researchers and clinicians. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the School-Age Temperament Inventory continued to demonstrate reliability and validity when retested with three existent samples of parent respondents. METHOD: Sample 1 was a sociodemographically and racially heterogeneous group of 200 children from New England in the United States. Data for Sample 2 was provided by 589 mothers and fathers from the state of Georgia in the United States. In Sample 3, data was provided by parents (principally, mothers) of 1,391 adolescents from Australia. Orthogonal Procrustes rotations were conducted to examine the underlying structure of the inventory when it was contrasted with the results obtained in the original standardization of the tool. RESULTS: The total coefficients of congruence for the samples were .88 to .97, while those of the four factors ranged from .84 to .98. Across the samples, Cronbach alphas for the dimensions ranged from .80 to .92. Independent t-tests identified that boys were significantly more active and less task persistent than girls. However, regression analyses revealed that sex accounted for only 5% of the variance in task persistence and activity. DISCUSSION: The results provide substantial additional support for the reliability and validity of the School-Age Temperament Inventory. Recommendations for future research are offered which include exploring the role of temperament in contributing to developmental outcomes in children and examining cross-cultural samples.