Search

Coping, personality, and identity are three well-known constructs within the field of psychology. Yet, findings regarding how these constructs relate to each other have been inconsistent. The present study employs network analysis to investigate coping, adaptive and maladaptive personality, and identity and how they are related, using data from the Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality, and Development (FSPPD; Prinzie et al., 2003; 1999-current). Young adults ( N = 457; 47% male), aged between 17-23 years old, completed a survey on coping, adaptive and maladaptive personality, and identity. Results indicate clear associations between coping and both adaptive and maladaptive personality within the network, suggesting coping and personality are distinct, yet highly related constructs whereas identity proved largely unrelated. Potential implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This nine-year longitudinal study addresses the joint contribution of parent-rated negative controlling parenting and child personality on psychosocial outcomes in 141 families of children with autism spectrum disorder (83% boys, mean age Time 1 = 10.1). Latent change modeling revealed substantial variation in within-person change in parenting and psychosocial outcomes across a six- and three-year-interval. Over time, negative controlling parenting and child personality were consistently related to externalizing problems, whereas child personality was differentially related to internalizing problems and psychosocial strengths. Three personality-by-parenting interactions were significant, suggesting that children with less mature personality traits show more externalizing behaviors in the presence of controlling parenting. This study identified both parenting and child personality as important modifiers of developmental outcomes in youth with autism.

To test the spectrum hypothesis--postulating that clinical and non-clinical samples are primarily differentiated by mean-level differences--, this study evaluates differences in parent-rated temperament, personality and maladjustment among a low-symptom (N = 81), a high-symptom (N = 94) ASD-group, and a comparison group (N = 500). These classic spectrum hypothesis tests are extended by adding tests for similarity in variances, reliabilities and patterns of covariation between relevant variables. Children with ASD exhibit more extreme means, except for dominance. The low- and high-symptom ASD-groups are primarily differentiated by mean sociability and internal distress. Striking similarities in reliability and pattern of covariation of variables suggest that comparable processes link traits to maladaptation in low- and high-symptom children with ASD and in children with and without autism.

This study describes temperament, personality, and problem behaviors in children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) aged 6 to 14 years. It targets differences between an ADHD sample (N = 54; 43 boys) and a large community sample (N = 465; 393 boys) in means and variances, psychometric properties, and covariation between traits and internalizing and externalizing problems. Parents rated their children on Buss and Plomin's and Rothbart's temperament models, a child-oriented five-factor personality model and also on problem behavior. Relative to the comparison group, children with ADHD presented with a distinct trait profile exhibiting lower means on Effortful Control, Conscientiousness, Benevolence and Emotional Stability, higher means on Emotionality, Activity, and Negative Affect, but similar levels of Surgency, Shyness, and Extraversion. Striking similarities in variances, reliabilities and, in particular, of the covariation between trait and maladjustment variables corroborate the spectrum hypothesis and suggest that comparable processes regulate problem behavior in children with and without ADHD.

Research on adulthood posits personality and self-esteem as important predictors of psychopathology. In childhood, however, the study of these relationships is complicated by the lack of consensus on how to combine data from multiple informants of child behavior. This study evaluates the relationships among personality symptoms, self-esteem and psychopathology in 60 child psychiatric patients (M (age) = 10.6) using principal component analysis (PCA) to aggregate data from multiple informants and compares this strategy with a single informant approach. When predictor and criterion measures were rated by a single informant, strong and differential relationships between personality symptoms, self-esteem and psychopathology are found. When multiple informant data were combined into composite scores by PCA, correlations decreased but remained significant. Hierarchical regression analyses affirm the robustness of the following pattern: Emotional Instability, Introversion and Global Self-Esteem are associated with internalizing whereas Disagreeableness and Behavioral Conduct primarily relate to externalizing problems.

The lack of empirical research relating temperament models and personality hinders conceptual integration and holds back research linking childhood traits to problem behavior or maladjustment. This study evaluates, within a sample of 443 preschoolers, the relationships between children's maladaptation and traits measured by three temperament models (Thomas and Chess, Buss and Plomin, and Rothbart), and a Five-Factor based personality model. Adequate reliabilities and expected factor structures are demonstrated for most scales. A joint principal component analysis combining 28 temperament and 18 personality scales indicates a six-factor model, distinguishing Sociability, Activity, Conscientiousness, Disagreeableness, Emotionality, and Sensitivity. Regression analyses reveal that although single temperament and personality scales explain from 23% to 37% of problem behavior variance, the six components explain from 41% to 49% and provide a clearer differentiation among CBCL-problem scales. This age-specific taxonomy refines and corroborates conclusions based on narrative reviews and furnishes a more balanced view of trait-maladjustment relationships.

The numerous temperament and personality constructs in childhood impede the systematic integration of findings on how these individual differences relate to developmental psychopathology. This paper reviews the main temperament and personality theories and proposes a theoretical taxonomy representing the common structure of both temperament and personality traditions within one conceptual framework. This integrated lexicon of childhood temperament/personality traits facilitates an overview of the most important research findings on the role of temperament and personality in the development of anxiety, depression, ADHD, proactive and reactive antisocial behavior. Several directions for future research are discussed to further validate and refine these reviewed relationships.

This study adopts a person-centered approach to evaluate personality diversity as a source of interpersonal variability in autistic children and adolescents, and how personality subgroup membership relates to variability in autistic characteristics, social-emotional presentations, and parenting outcomes. Latent Profile Analysis was used to analyze 569 parent reports on a child-based Five-Factor-Model personality measure (aged 6–18 years; Mage = 11.8 years, SD = 3.1; 70% boys). Four distinct personality profile groups were identified, showing varying levels in the low to average range of all five personality domains. All groups scored lowest on Extraversion and Emotional Stability. They differed the most in Imagination and the least in Emotional Stability. Group 1 (n = 72) exhibited the lowest mean-level scores on all five domains, whereas Group 4 (n = 90) had the highest domain scores. Group 2 (n = 307) and Group 3 (n = 100) showed more diverse patterns. Group membership was meaningfully associated with variation in characteristics of social interaction and communication, internalizing, externalizing, and attentional problems, psychosocial strengths, and positive parenting strategies. Only modest group differences were found in parenting stress. All groups had similar scores on repetitive and restrictive behaviors. These findings help to better understand and support natural subgroups within the autism phenotype by exploring shared personality attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]