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The “Little Five”: Exploring the Nomological Network of the Five‐Factor Model of Personality in Adolescent Boys
Author(s) -
John Oliver P.,
Caspi Avshalom,
Robins Richard W.,
Moffitt Terrie E.,
StouthamerLoeber Magda
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00742.x
Subject(s) - psychology , agreeableness , conscientiousness , nomological network , developmental psychology , hierarchical structure of the big five , big five personality traits , personality , neuroticism , juvenile delinquency , extraversion and introversion , openness to experience , social psychology , structural equation modeling , statistics , mathematics
The California Child Q‐set (CCQ) was used to explore the structure of personality in early adolescence and to develop scales to measure the “Big Five” dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. Mothers provided Q‐sorts of 350 ethnically diverse boys between 12 and 13 years old. Analyses of the construct validity of the scales provided a nomological network relating the Big Five to theoretically and socially important criterion variables, such as juvenile delinquency, Externalizing and Internalizing disorders of childhood psychopathology, school performance, IQ, SES, and race. These effects were obtained using diverse methods, including self‐reports from the boys, ratings by their mothers and their teachers, and objective‐test data. In addition to the Big Five, analyses also suggested 2 possibly age‐specific dimensions of personality in early adolescence. Discussion is focused on the changing manifestations of personality traits throughout development.