Children's behavioral styles at age 3 are linked to their adult personality traits at age 26.
We observed 1,000 3-year-old children who exhibited five temperament types: Undercontrolled, Inhibited, Confident, Reserved, and Well-adjusted. Twenty-three years later, we reexamined 96% of the children as adults, using multiple methods of comprehensive personality assessment, including both self- and informant-reports. These longitudinal data provide the longest and strongest evidence to date that children's early-emerging behavioral styles can foretell their characteristic behaviors, thoughts, and feelings as adults, pointing to the foundations of the human personality in the early years of life.
Caspi
Avshalom
A
Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, England.
Harrington
HonaLee
H
Milne
Barry
B
Amell
James W
JW
Theodore
Reremoana F
RF
Moffitt
Terrie E
TE
D000328:Adult; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010553:Personality Development; D011594:Psychometrics; D012919:Social Behavior; D013694:Temperament