title: Normative data and effects of age and gender on temperament and character dimensions across the lifespan in an Italian population: A cross-sectional validation study.
abstract: The short version of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125) has been employed for the study of personality traits in both clinical and normal populations. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies explored the psychometric properties of this instrument in healthy individuals across the lifespan. We here provide the Italian normative data and present the personality features according to age and gender in a sample of healthy individuals.
  
  
  
  A cross-sectional study was carried out in a total of 1430 Italian healthy individuals ranging from 13 to 67 years (59.3% females). We evaluated the factorial model of the TCI-125, explored the internal consistency of the scales and carried out univariate analyses of variance for the investigation of age and gender differences in temperament and character dimensions.
  
  
  
  Confirmatory factor analysis only partially confirmed the factor structure, with some Reward Dependence, Self-Directedness, and Cooperativeness items showing poor fit. Overall we found acceptable internal consistencies for all the dimensions of the TCI-125 across all age groups, except for Reward Dependence, Persistence, and Novelty Seeking, which showed unsatisfactory internal consistency in younger age groups. Furthermore, we found significant age differences in most temperament and all character dimensions. Finally, in specific age groups we also observed significantly lower scores in males compared to females in Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence and all character dimensions except for Self-Directedness, on which males scored higher than females.
  
  
  
  Although this study only partially confirmed the factor structure of the TCI-125 and suggested limited homogeneity for some temperament scales, overall our results supported the reliability of the TCI-125, which can therefore be considered a useful tool for exploring personality traits in both clinical and normal samples. Moreover, this study suggested the need of using this instrument with caution in adolescents.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS "E. Medea" Scientific Institute, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Delvecchio
authors.affiliation: IRCCS "E. Medea" Scientific Institute, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garzitto
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, National Centre of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Corrado
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fagnani
authors.affiliation: IRCCS "E. Medea" Scientific Institute, Italy.
authors.forename: Livia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fornasari
authors.affiliation: Genetic Epidemiology Unit, National Centre of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Antonietta
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Stazi
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Unit, National Centre of Epidemiology, Surveillance and Health Promotion, Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Picardi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ciappolino
authors.affiliation: IRCCS "E. Medea" Scientific Institute, Italy; Department of Medical and Biological Sciences (DMBS), University of Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fabbro
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: A Carlo
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Altamura
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences and Mental Health, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milan, Milan, Italy; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, University of Texas at Houston, TX, USA. Electronic address: paolo.brambilla1@unimi.it.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brambilla
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002605:Character; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality / Q000145:classification*; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013694:Temperament
keywords: Cross-sectional; Healthy subjects; Personality; TCI-125; Validation study