Temperament and Personality in Adolescents

1
Temperament and Personality in Adolescents Ruth
Spence, Matthew Owens, Ian Goodyer
Background

• During the transition from childhood to
  adolescence there is a dramatic rise in the
  incidence of mental health issues.
• There is evidence to suggest that temperament and
  personality are linked to the formation and
  persistence these problems.
• Elucidating the associations between
  dispositional factors and mental health will help
  tailor treatments and identify vulnerable
  individuals who may benefit from early
  interventions.

Conclusions Future Directions

• Temperament is very stable over adolescence and
  an identical structure can be found at 14 and 17
  years
• Temperament and personality traits are related to
  each other and the results support the use of a
  developmental model that includes traits from
  both domains
• Self-report measures of depressive and anxiety
  symptoms will be added to this developmental
  model to explore bi-directional influences
  between psychopathology and personality
  formation.
• The results of this future work will also be used
  to investigate the ways in which temperament and
  personality influence adolescent service use and
  engagement.

Temperament
Emotionality
Activity
Sociability
Shyness
Aims

• Form an integrated model of adolescent
  temperament and personality by using structural
  equation modelling
• Measure temperament using the Parent version of
  the EAS Temperament Survey for Children (EAS
  Buss Plomin, 1984) at 14 and 17 years
• Measure personality using the self report NEO
  Five Factor Inventory (NEO FFI Costa McCrae,
  1992) at 19 years of age
• Use path analysis to test how temperament might
  predict later personality

Structure of temperament at age 14 and 17 years
14 yrs
17 yrs
19 yrs
Neuroticism
Personality
Emotionality
Emotionality
.38
.68
Extraversion
Activity
Activity
.86
-.28
Openness
Extraversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
.37
Methods and Measures

• This study used data from ROOTS a longitudinal
  prospective study of mental and physical health
  outcomes over the adolescent years (Goodyer et
  al., 2009)
• 1208 14 year olds were recruited from
  Cambridgeshire secondary schools in the UK
• Primary caregivers filled out the EAS Temperament
  Survey (Buss Plomin, 1984) when adolescents
  were age 14 and again at 17 years old. This
  measures temperament along four dimensions
  Emotionality, Activity, Sociability and Shyness
• The adolescents were sent the NEO Five Factor
  Inventory (Costa McCrae, 1992) at age 19 years.
  This is a five factor measure of personality
  Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to
  Experience, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness
• Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess
  the relationships between temperament and
  personality traits

Sociability
Sociability
.25
.68
.14
Agreeableness
Structure of Personality at age 19 years
-.32
Shyness
Shyness
.85

• Of the original 1208, 1074 were followed up at
  age 17 (88.9), and 470 returned the personality
  questionnaires (38.9) at age 19
• Path Analysis showed that temperament was very
  stable over time, with temperament at age 14
  being very predictive of temperament at age 17.
  Path coefficients ranged from .68 for
  Emotionality and Sociability to .86 for Activity
• Pathway coefficients demonstrated positive
  relationship between Emotionality and Neuroticism
  (.38), Activity and Conscientiousness (.37),
  Sociability and Extraversion (.25) and
  Agreeableness (.14). There was a negative
  relationship between Activity and Openness (-.28)
  and Shyness and Extraversion (-.32)
• Temperament explained 21 of the variance in
  Neuroticism, 32 of Extraversion, 12.9 of
  Openness to Experience, 4.4 Agreeableness and
  13.3 of Conscientiousness

Findings
Conscientiousness
Note all path coefficients are significant at
plt.05
Pathways from Temperament measured at age14 and
17 to Personality measured at 19 years
References

• Buss, A. H., Plomin, R. (1984). Temperament
  Early developing personality traits. Hillsdale,
  NJ Lawrence Erlbaum Assosciates, Inc.
• Costa, P. T., McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO
  Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five
  Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual.
  Odessa, FL. Psychological Assessment Resources
• Goodyer, I. M., Croudace, T., Dunn, V., Herbert,
  J., Jones, P. B. (2009). Cohort profile Risk
  patterns and processes for psychopathology
  emerging during adolescence The ROOTS project.
  International Journal of Epidemiology, 1-9
• Nigg, J. T. (2006). Temperament and developmental
  psychopathology. Journal of Child Psychology and
  Psychiatry, 47(3), 395-422.
• Shiner, R. L., Caspi, A. (2003). Personality
  differences in childhood and adolescence
  measurement, development, and consequences.
  Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry,
  44(1), 2-32.