Five Types of Personality Continuity in Childhood and Adolescence.

This study examines 5 types of personality continuity-structural, mean-level, individual-level, differential, and ipsative in a representative population (N = 498) and a twin and sibling sample (TV = 548) of children and adolescents. Parents described their children on 2 successive occasions with a 36-month interval using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (I. Mervielde & F. De Fruyt, 1999). There was evidence for structural continuity in the 2 samples, and personality was shown to be largely differentially stable. A large percentage had a stable trait profile indicative of ipsative stability, and mean-level personality changes were generally small in magnitude. Continuity findings were explained mainly by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]