title: The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: a quantitative review of longitudinal studies.
abstract: The present study used meta-analytic techniques to test whether trait consistency maximizes and stabilizes at a specific period in the life course. From 152 longitudinal studies, 3,217 test-retest correlation coefficients were compiled. Meta-analytic estimates of mean population test-retest correlation coefficients showed that trait consistency increased from .31 in childhood to .54 during the college years, to .64 at age 30, and then reached a plateau around .74 between ages 50 and 70 when time interval was held constant at 6.7 years. Analysis of moderators of consistency showed that the longitudinal time interval had a negative relation to trait consistency and that temperament dimensions were less consistent than adult personality traits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, USA. broberts@s.psych.uiuc.edu
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: DelVecchio
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010553:Personality Development; D010556:Personality Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013694:Temperament; D013997:Time Factors