Identifying Early Childhood Personality Dimensions Using the California Child Q-Set and Prospective Associations With Behavioral and Psychosocial Development.
The present study used an empirical, "bottom-up" approach to delineate the structure of the California Child Q-Set (CCQ), a comprehensive set of personality descriptors, in a sample of 373 preschool-aged children. This approach yielded two broad trait dimensions, Adaptive Socialization (emotional stability, compliance, intelligence) and Anxious Inhibition (emotional/behavioral introversion). Results demonstrate the value of using empirical derivation to investigate the structure of personality in young children, speak to the importance of early-evident personality traits for adaptive development, and are consistent with a growing body of evidence indicating that personality structure in young children is similar, but not identical to, that in adults, suggesting a model of broad personality dimensions in childhood that evolve into narrower traits in adulthood.
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River Rd, Minneapolis, MN 55455. syliaw@umn.edu.
Sylia
S
Wilson
Benjamin D
BD
Schalet
Brian M
BM
Hicks
Robert A
RA
Zucker
California Child Q-Set; Personality structure; cluster analysis; early childhood; personality development