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The Big Five: Recent developments in Slovene child personality research
Maja Zupančič
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Written in English. | Published: December 30, 2008
Abstract: This paper presents an overview of recent personality trait research in children and early adolescents, with a special focus on studies in Slovenia. In the search for the precursors of the adult Big Five, a free-descriptive strategy to assess personality in non-adult samples is emphasized. Findings suggest that parents describe infants and toddlers in terms that are predominantly categorized in the Five-Factor Model taxonomy. Distributions of descriptors show developmental patterns from infancy to early adolescence and small cultural differences. Based on the parental natural language used to describe children across countries, ecologically valid assessment tools were created. The Inventory of Child Individual Differences (ICID; Halverson et al., 2003) was conceptualized as an age and culturally neutral instrument, and is widely used in Slovenia. Cross-sectional studies on ICID ratings of 3 to 14 year-olds provide information on age, sex, and cultural differences in child/adolescent personality trait expression across observers. Several aspects of trait consistency from early to middle childhood, using a longitudinal and multiple-informant approach, are reviewed, as well as the aspects of consistency across contexts and informants. Concurrent and longitudinal predictive values of the ICID trait assessments are shown in relation to several social and academic outcomes. In addition to the variable-centered method, results based on the child-centered approach suggest several internally replicable personality types. Developmental and cross-observer consistency in the structure of personality types, stability of type membership and its predictive validity versus personality traits is described. Prospects for future research on child personality development are suggested, including new methods of assessment and the investigation of links between early personality and important life outcomes.
Keywords: childhood, early adolescence, personality traits, Big Five Personality model, assessment, Slovenia
