In this longitudinal study, we investigated the factor structure and stability of early-life temperament in a German sample, using three measures developed within Rothbart's psychobiological approach. Temperament was measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised (IBQ-R) at the ages of 6 and 12 months, the Early Childhood Behavior…

Compassion may be directed at a broad range of targets. The present study investigated interrelations among other-directed compassion, self-compassion, and environmental compassion in early adolescence (age = 12-14; n = 256) and examined how the different manifestations of compassion related to age and sex during this age period. Dispositional…

The present cross-sectional study investigated age and gender differences in motivational manifestations of the Big Five in a large German-speaking Internet sample (N = 19,022). Participants ranging in age from 16 to 60 years completed the Five Individual Reaction Norms Inventory (FIRNI; Denissen & Penke, 2008a), and two traditional Big Five…

The authors investigated normative beliefs about personality development. Young, middle-aged, and older adults indicated the age-relevance of 835 French adjectives by specifying person characteristics as typical for any age decade from 0 to 99 years. With this paradigm, the authors determined age-relevance (How typical is a characteristic for a…

This research details the changing ways in which young people of different ages differently warrant the conviction that, notwithstanding evidence of good and bad behaviours, selves can be understood as unified across the various roles and contexts that they occupy. Canadian adolescents and young adults were asked to explain the apparent disunity…

The aim of this study was to explore child and adolescent personality in the Russian culture, addressing gender and age differences, and to examine personality and family effects on children's Internalizing and Externalizing problems. Parents of 1,640 Russian children aged 3-18 years completed the Inventory of Child Individual Differences…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of social capital assessed in early adulthood in linking self-control in childhood with psychological and social functioning in middle age. Data collected at ages 8, 27, and 42 years were based on the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (159 females, 177 males).…

The present study used meta-analytic techniques (number of samples = 92) to determine the patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course. Results showed that people increase in measures of social dominance (a facet of extraversion), conscientiousness, and emotional stability, especially in young adulthood (age 20 to…

Implications of parental self-esteem for the subsequent personality qualities and self-esteem of the developing child were explored in this investigation. The sample consisted of 65 mothers and 44 fathers who completed a self Q-sort and an ideal-self Q-sort when their children were 12 years of age. At the ages of 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, and 14 years, 54…

A study involving 152 children (ages 7-13) with learning disabilities assessed the relationships between age and psychosocial functioning, and the relationships among psychosocial functioning, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement. Results found no increase in psychopathology with advancing age and clear relationships between academic…

Examined psychological maturity based on personal strivings in 108 adults ages 17 to 82 years. Results supported hypotheses that older people would list more strivings concerning generativity and ego integrity and fewer strivings concerning identity and intimacy, and that maturity and age would be positively associated with subjective well-being.…

Investigated the impact of developmental concerns on 140 college students' self-disclosure using an instrument based on Erikson's psychosocial theory of development. Results indicated two developmental issues were found to be significant predictors of willingness to disclose problems to fathers and to same- and opposite-sex friends. (Author/BL)

Dutch adolescents, ages 12 to 14, completed the Utrect-Groningen Identity Development Scale, which encompasses separate scales for commitment in exploration for relational, school, and occupational identity. Results show that relational identity becomes consistently stronger as adolescents age, and that for girls, relational identity is much more…