Developmental Personality Types From Childhood to Adolescence: Associations With Parenting and Adjustment

• Published in: Child development Vol. 84; no. 6; pp. 2015 - 2030
• Main Authors: de Haan, Amaranta D., Deković, Maja, van den Akker, Alithe L., Stoltz, Sabine E. M. J., Prinzie, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2013; Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Adjustment; Adjustment (to Environment); Adjustment Disorders - psychology; Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescent Development; Adolescent Development - physiology; Adolescents; Aggression - psychology; Benevolence; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Child Development - physiology; Child Rearing; Childhood; Children; Children & youth; Conduct Disorder - psychology; Conscientiousness; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Developmental psychology; Discipline; Emotional stability; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Five factor model; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gender Differences; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Latent structure analysis; Longitudinal Studies; Membership; Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Parenting - psychology; Parents & parenting; Personality; Personality - physiology; Personality change; Personality Development; Personality psychology; Personality Traits; Preadolescents; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Self Report; Sex Factors; Social Adjustment; Trucks; Human; Parental behavior; Sex; Personality; Personality development; Parent child relation; Big Five personality model; Social interaction; Correlation analysis; Follow up study; Adolescent; Family environment; Child
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12092

This study examined whether changes in children's self-reported Big Five dimensions are represented by (developmental) personality types, using a cohort-sequential design with three measurement occasions across 5 years (four cohorts, 9–12 years at T1; N = 523). Correlates of, and gender differences in, type membership were examined. Latent class growth modeling yielded three personality types: Resilients (highest initial levels on all Big Five), Overcontrollers (lowest Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Imagination), and Undercontrollers (lowest Benevolence, Conscientiousness). Gender differences in type membership were small. Warm parenting, but not overreactive discipline, in childhood was associated with type membership. The types differed in adjustment problems by the end of middle adolescence. Personality change more likely occurs at the level of dimensions within types than in type membership.