Do stimulation and support in the early childhood home environment and best friendship quality in adolescence predict adult personality?

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to determine whether stimulation and support in early childhood and best friendship quality in adolescence predict adult personality.

Participants and procedure: We used data from 123 individuals from an ongoing longitudinal study, with multiple assessment phases and modalities (observation, parental rating, self-report) to investigate prospective associations between stimulation and support in the home in early childhood (age 1-2), best friendship quality in adolescence (age 15), and the Big Five personality traits in adulthood (age 29) controlling for temperament, socioeconomic status (SES), and gender.

Results: After controlling for temperament, SES, and gender, we found that early childhood stimulation and support was related to adult openness to experiences, but not the other four traits, and that best friendship quality in adolescence was related to adult extraversion and agreeableness, but not conscientiousness, neuroticism, or openness to experiences.

Conclusions: The study contributes to research indicating that while personalities are relatively stable, they are not fixed at an early age and may be related to experiences and salient relationships throughout development. There is a dearth of research investigating such associations and the available findings are inconsistent. Conclusions about the relations between experiences such as stimulation and support in the home in early childhood or best friendship quality in adolescence and adult personality should thus be viewed skeptically until replicated.