Cargando…

Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?

BACKGROUND: Although research into the continuity and change of personality traits during a lifespan has been fairly extensive, little research has been conducted on childhood predictors of adult personality. PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the association between infant socioeconomic status (SES),...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Flensborg-Madsen, Trine, Mortensen, Erik Lykke
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4117594/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25078408
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103846
_version_ 1782328727023124480
author Flensborg-Madsen, Trine
Mortensen, Erik Lykke
author_facet Flensborg-Madsen, Trine
Mortensen, Erik Lykke
author_sort Flensborg-Madsen, Trine
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although research into the continuity and change of personality traits during a lifespan has been fairly extensive, little research has been conducted on childhood predictors of adult personality. PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the association between infant socioeconomic status (SES), and Eysenck personality traits in adulthood. An additional aim was to investigate whether intelligence and education may mediate this association. METHODS: SES of 9125 children in the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort was recorded at a 1-year examination. A subsample of this cohort, comprising 1182 individuals, participated in a follow-up at 20–34 years and was administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) which includes measures of neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism and the so-called lie-scale. Associations of SES with each of the four personality traits were analysed by bivariate and partial correlations, and the mediating effects of intelligence and years of education were analysed. RESULTS: Higher SES in infancy was associated with lower neuroticism (r = −0.06; p = 0.05), lower lie-scale scores (r = −0.11; p = 0.0002), and higher psychoticism (r = 0.09; p = 0.003). However, analyses of mediation revealed no direct effect of infant SES on any of the adult personality traits, but only indirect effects mediated by intelligence and years of education, with intelligence being the main mediating factor. CONCLUSION: Only weak associations were observed between infant SES and personality in young adulthood, and the observed associations were mediated by adult intelligence and educational level. Thus, factors associated with infant SES or family background appears to have weak direct effects on personality development.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4117594
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-41175942014-08-04 Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence? Flensborg-Madsen, Trine Mortensen, Erik Lykke PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Although research into the continuity and change of personality traits during a lifespan has been fairly extensive, little research has been conducted on childhood predictors of adult personality. PURPOSE: We aimed to investigate the association between infant socioeconomic status (SES), and Eysenck personality traits in adulthood. An additional aim was to investigate whether intelligence and education may mediate this association. METHODS: SES of 9125 children in the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort was recorded at a 1-year examination. A subsample of this cohort, comprising 1182 individuals, participated in a follow-up at 20–34 years and was administered the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) which includes measures of neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism and the so-called lie-scale. Associations of SES with each of the four personality traits were analysed by bivariate and partial correlations, and the mediating effects of intelligence and years of education were analysed. RESULTS: Higher SES in infancy was associated with lower neuroticism (r = −0.06; p = 0.05), lower lie-scale scores (r = −0.11; p = 0.0002), and higher psychoticism (r = 0.09; p = 0.003). However, analyses of mediation revealed no direct effect of infant SES on any of the adult personality traits, but only indirect effects mediated by intelligence and years of education, with intelligence being the main mediating factor. CONCLUSION: Only weak associations were observed between infant SES and personality in young adulthood, and the observed associations were mediated by adult intelligence and educational level. Thus, factors associated with infant SES or family background appears to have weak direct effects on personality development. Public Library of Science 2014-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC4117594/ /pubmed/25078408 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103846 Text en © 2014 Flensborg-Madsen, Mortensen http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Flensborg-Madsen, Trine
Mortensen, Erik Lykke
Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?
title Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?
title_full Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?
title_fullStr Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?
title_full_unstemmed Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?
title_short Infant SES as a Predictor of Personality—Is the Association Mediated by Intelligence?
title_sort infant ses as a predictor of personality—is the association mediated by intelligence?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4117594/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25078408
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0103846
work_keys_str_mv AT flensborgmadsentrine infantsesasapredictorofpersonalityistheassociationmediatedbyintelligence
AT mortenseneriklykke infantsesasapredictorofpersonalityistheassociationmediatedbyintelligence