Validity of Big Five personality judgments in childhood: a 9 year longitudinal study

Abstract

In a 9 year longitudinal study over childhood, the Big Five personality traits were assessed at ages 4–6 by teacher Q‐sorts, at age 10 by parental Q‐sorts, and at age 12 by parental and friend ratings on bipolar adjective scales. The Big Five Q‐sort indices were based on definitions proposed by John, Caspi, Robins, Moffitt, and Stouthamer‐Loeber (1994) for adolescent boys. They were related to judgments and behavioural observations of inhibition and aggressiveness, and to antecedents and consequences of school achievement such as IQ and cognitive self‐esteem. Neuroticism and low extraversion correlated with social inhibition, low agreeableness and low conscientiousness with aggressiveness, and conscientiousness and/or culture/intellect/openness with antecedents and outcomes of school achievement. These correlations were consistently found throughout childhood. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.