Chinese and Dutch parents' perceptions of their children's personality.
The authors coded Chinese (n = 401) and Dutch (n = 324) parents' free descriptions of their 3- to 14-year-old children's personalities using a 14-category coding system partially based on the Big Five. Of the Chinese and Dutch personality descriptors, 86% and 77%, respectively, could be classified in the first 5 main categories resembling the five-factor model of adult personality. No significant differences were found for gender, socio-economic status, or city in these categories. Chinese parents of school age children generated many more descriptors, mostly critical, in the domain of conscientiousness. The findings reflect Chinese high achievement orientation and show that the classification system, which presently serves as a basis for developing indigenous questionnaires for personality assessment of children in China and some Western countries, is sensitive to cultural differences.
Zhang
Yuching
Y
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chaoyang District, Beijing. zhangyq@psych.ac.cn
Kohnstamm
Geldolph
G
Slotboom
Anne-Marie
AM
Elphick
Eric
E
Cheung
Ping Chung
PC
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results