title: Children's behavioral styles at age 3 are linked to their adult personality traits at age 26.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, England.
authors.forename: Avshalom
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caspi
authors.forename: HonaLee
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harrington
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Milne
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Amell
authors.forename: Reremoana F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Theodore
authors.forename: Terrie E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Moffitt
mesh_terms: 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