TY - JOUR

T1 - Are All Kids Alike? The Magnitude of Individual Differences in Personality Characteristics Tends to Increase from Early Childhood to Early Adolescence

AU - Mõttus, René

AU - Soto, Christopher J.

AU - Slobodskaya, Helena R.

PY - 2017/7/1

Y1 - 2017/7/1

N2 - Do individual differences in personality traits become more or less pronounced over childhood and adolescence? The present research examined age differences in the variance of a range of personality traits, using parent reports of two large samples of children from predominantly the USA and Russia, respectively. Results indicate (i) that individual differences in most traits tend to increase with age from early childhood into early adolescence and then plateau, (ii) that this general pattern of greater personality variance at older childhood age is consistent across the two countries, and (iii) that this pattern is not an artefact of age differences in means or floor/ceiling effects. These findings are consistent with several (noncontradictory) developmental mechanisms, including youths' expanding behavioural capacities and person–environment transactions (corresponsive principle). However, these mechanisms may predominantly characterize periods before adolescence, or they may be offset by countervailing processes, such as socialization pressure towards a mature personality profile, in late adolescence and adulthood. Finally, the findings also suggest that interpreting age trajectories in mean trait scores as pertaining to age differences in a typical person may sometimes be misleading. Investigating variance should become an integral part of studying personality development.

AB - Do individual differences in personality traits become more or less pronounced over childhood and adolescence? The present research examined age differences in the variance of a range of personality traits, using parent reports of two large samples of children from predominantly the USA and Russia, respectively. Results indicate (i) that individual differences in most traits tend to increase with age from early childhood into early adolescence and then plateau, (ii) that this general pattern of greater personality variance at older childhood age is consistent across the two countries, and (iii) that this pattern is not an artefact of age differences in means or floor/ceiling effects. These findings are consistent with several (noncontradictory) developmental mechanisms, including youths' expanding behavioural capacities and person–environment transactions (corresponsive principle). However, these mechanisms may predominantly characterize periods before adolescence, or they may be offset by countervailing processes, such as socialization pressure towards a mature personality profile, in late adolescence and adulthood. Finally, the findings also suggest that interpreting age trajectories in mean trait scores as pertaining to age differences in a typical person may sometimes be misleading. Investigating variance should become an integral part of studying personality development.

KW - corresponsive principle

KW - development

KW - Little Six

KW - transactions

KW - variance

KW - AGE-DIFFERENCES

KW - PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

KW - ASSOCIATIONS

KW - MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS

KW - CHILDREN

KW - SHORT VERSION

KW - EARLY ADULTHOOD

KW - TESTING MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE

KW - SELF-CONCEPT

KW - TRAITS

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021816810&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/per.2107

DO - 10.1002/per.2107

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85021816810

VL - 31

SP - 313

EP - 328

JO - European Journal of Personality

JF - European Journal of Personality

SN - 0890-2070

IS - 4

ER -