Personality and Development in Childhood : A Person-Centered Approach

This Monograph addresses three questions: 1) How can we best describe childhood personality? 2) How is personality related to the child's successes and failures? 3) What sort of factors are related to personality development?

Based on longitudinal analyses of thousands of children from across the United States, this research demonstrates that three personality types best describe personality.

These types are labeled the resilient, the over-controlled, and the under-controlled.

Resilient children, capable of controlling their emotions and interacting effectively with others, have the fewest behavioral problems and benefit the most from early intervention programs and school.

Over-controlled children are shy and prone to internalizing disorders.

Finally, under-controlled children have difficulty modulating their emotions, are prone to behavior problems, and fall increasingly behind resilient and over-controlled children in school.

Stress plays an important role in the development of personality.

In particular, stresses characteristic of poverty are related to the transformation of resilient children into under-controlled children.