Maturation of personality in adolescence.

Full Abstract

The present research assesses adolescent personality maturation by examining 3 measures of change and stability (i.e., mean-level change, rank-order stability, and profile similarity) of Big Five personality traits, employing data from a 5-annual-wave study with overlapping early to middle (n = 923) and middle to late (n = 390) adolescent cohorts. Results indicated that mean levels of Agreeableness and Emotional Stability increased during adolescence. There was mixed evidence for increases in Extraversion and Openness. Additionally, rank-order stability and profile similarity of adolescent personality traits clearly increased from early to late adolescence. For all change facets, the authors found evidence for gender differences in the timing of adolescent personality maturation, as girls were found to mature earlier than boys. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Klimstra, Theo A (TA); Hale, William W (WW); Raaijmakers, Quinten A W (QA); Branje, Susan J T (SJ); Meeus, Wim H J (WH);

Affiliation: Research Centre Adolescent Development, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. t.a.klimstra(-atsign-)uu.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of personality and social psychology (J Pers Soc Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Apr; vol 96 (issue 4) : pp 898-912

Dates: Created 2009/03/24; Completed 2009/05/28;

PMID: 19309210, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 5/28/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.

See 100+ related articles.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.