Running Head: DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY EXTREMITY

Article Summary of The Development of Personality Extremity from Childhood to Adolescence: Relations to Internalizing and Externalizing Problems. Azaria I. Perez Cerritos College

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY EXTREMITY This study investigated the development of personality extremity (deviation of an average midpoint of the 5 personality dimensions) in children and adolescents, as well as relations between personality extremity and adjustment problems. Based on previous findings regarding the prevalence of personality pathology in youths, they hypothesized that a small subgroup would have extreme personality configurations that are either stable or increasingly extreme with time. This study is important because personality extremity may be important to consider when identifying children at risk for adjustment problems. To determine whether personality extremity provides incremental predictive value above and beyond the personality dimensions, they controlled their levels to the Big Five personality dimensions. The five, which are often labeled extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. The Big Five approach can indicate personality pathology at both extremely high levels and extremely low levels. The validity of the Big Five approach for has been well established having also proved useful in predicting many child outcomes, including adjustment problems. Children who have low agreeableness and conscientiousness are prone to externalizing problems whereas introverted and emotionally unstable children are prone to internalizing problems. The researchers also investigated both mother and father reports of extremity, as well as mother, father, and teacher reported adjustment problems to determine the reproducibility of their findings. They also included interactions with gender to determine whether the implications of having an extreme personality configuration are different for boys and girls. Children's vector length in a 5-dimensional configuration of the Big Five dimensions represented personality extremity. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported children's internalizing

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY EXTREMITY and externalizing problems at the 1st and final measurement. Latent growth mixture modeling revealed a similar solution for both mother and father reports: a large group with relatively short vectors that were stable over time (mother reports: 80.3%; father reports: 84.7%) and 2 smaller groups with relatively long vectors (i.e., extreme personality configuration). One group started out relatively extreme and decreased over time (mother reports: 13.2%; father reports: 10.4%), whereas the other group started out only slightly higher than the short vector group but increased across time (mother reports: 6.5%; father reports: 4.9%). Results indicate that there is a small but important subgroup of children whose personality configuration becomes increasingly extreme across childhood and adolescence. This group is at risk of experiencing both internalizing and externalizing adjustment problems in late adolescence. Furthermore, the extremity of their personality configuration was predictive of adjustment problems above and beyond their levels of the personality dimensions and previous levels of adjustment problems. Personality extremity appears to be important to take into account, in addition to childrens levels of the Big Five personality dimensions, when investigating their risk for adjustment problems.

DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY EXTREMITY References Van den Akker, A. L., Prinzie, P., Dekovi, M., Asscher, J. J., De Haan, A. D., & Widiger, T. (2013). The Development of Personality Extremity from Childhood to Adolescence: Relations to Internalizing and Externalizing Problems. Journal Of Personality & Social Psychology, 105(6), 1038-1048. doi:10.1037/a0034441