The emergence of sex differences in personality traits in early adolescence: A cross-sectional, cross-cultural study.

Abstract

Although large international studies have found consistent patterns of sex differences in personality traits among adults (i.e., women scoring higher on most facets), less is known about cross-cultural sex differences in adolescent personality and the role of culture and age in shaping them. The present study examines the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (McCrae, Costa, & Martin, 2005) informant ratings of adolescents from 23 cultures (N = 4,850), and investigates culture and age as sources of variability in sex differences of adolescents' personality. The effect for Neuroticism (with females scoring higher than males) begins to take on its adult form around age 14. Girls score higher on Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness at all ages between 12 and 17 years. A more complex pattern emerges for Extraversion and Agreeableness, although by age 17, sex differences for these traits are highly similar to those observed in adulthood. Cross-sectional data suggest that (a) with advancing age, sex differences found in adolescents increasingly converge toward adult patterns with respect to both direction and magnitude; (b) girls display sex-typed personality traits at an earlier age than boys; and (c) the emergence of sex differences was similar across cultures. Practical implications of the present findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Cite this

Marleen De Bolle, Filip De Fruyt, Robert R. McCrae, Corinna E. Löckenhoff, Paul T. Costa, Maria E. Aguilar‐Vafaie, … Antonio Terracciano (2015). The emergence of sex differences in personality traits in early adolescence: A cross-sectional, cross-cultural study.. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038497

@article{de2015the,
  title  = {The emergence of sex differences in personality traits in early adolescence: A cross-sectional, cross-cultural study.},
  author = {Bolle, Marleen De and Fruyt, Filip De and McCrae, Robert R. and Löckenhoff, Corinna E. and Costa, Paul T. and Aguilar‐Vafaie, Maria E. and Ahn, Chang-Kyu and Ahn, Hyun-nie and Alcalay, Lidia and Allïk, Jüri and Avdeyeva, Tatyana V. and Bratko, Denis and Brunner-Sciarra, Marina and Cain, Thomas R. and Chan, Wayne and Chittcharat, Niyada and Crawford, Jarret T. and Fehr, Ryan and Ficková, Emília and Gelfand, Michele Joy and Graf, Sylvie and Gülgöz, Sami̇ and Hřebı́čková, Martina and Jussim, Lee J. and Klinkosz, Waldemar and Knežević, Goran and Figueroa, Nora Leibovich de and Lima, Margarida Pedroso de and Martin, Thomas and Marušić, Iris and Mastor, Khairul Anwar and Nakazato, Katsuharu and Nansubuga, Florence and Porrata, José Luis and Purić, Danka and Realo, Anu and Colareta, Norma Reátegui and Rolland, Jean‐Pierre and Schmidt, Vanina and Sękowski, Andrzej Edward and Shakespeare‐Finch, Jane and Shimonaka, Yoshiko and Simonetti, Franco and Siuta, Jerzy and Szmigielska, Barbara and Vanno, Vitanya and Wang, Lei and Yik, Michelle and Terracciano, Antonio},
  year   = {2015},
  journal = {Journal of Personality and Social Psychology},
  doi    = {10.1037/a0038497}
}

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