Stability and change in personality type membership and anxiety in adolescence.
Although the stability and changeability of personality has long been debated, many studies now agree that personality changes over the life course. Although the changes in rank-order and mean-level stability are well established, the stability in personality type membership during adolescence is not yet clear. Little research has been conducted on the associations between change in personality type membership and anxiety. A total of 827 adolescents (10-20 years) completed personality and anxiety questionnaires on 2 waves of the CONflict And Management Of RElationships study (CONAMORE). We found that the stability in personality type membership was moderate. The change from undercontroller to overcontroller was the most frequently occurring change. Furthermore, the stability in type membership was related to stability in anxiety level and change in type membership was related to anxiety change. More specifically, the resilient-overcontroller group demonstrated an increase in anxiety level, whereas the overcontroller-resilient group demonstrated a decrease.
Akse
Joyce
J
Utrecht University, Research Centre Adolescent Development, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands. J.Akse@fss.uu.nl
Hale
William W
WW
Engels
Rutger C M E
RC
Raaijmakers
Quinten A W
QA
Meeus
Wim H J
WH
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010551:Personality / Q000145:classification*; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires