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Genetic and environmental influences on personality trait stability and growth during the transition to adulthood: a three-wave longitudinal study
Open accessAbstract
During the transition to adulthood individuals typically settle into adult roles in love and work. This transition also involves significant changes in personality traits that are generally in the direction of greater maturity and increased stability. Competing hypotheses have been offered to account for these personality changes: The intrinsic maturation hypothesis suggests that change trajectories are endogenous, whereas the life-course hypothesis suggests that these changes occur because of transactions with the social environment. This study investigated the patterns and origins of personality trait changes from ages 17 to 29 using 3 waves of Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire data provided by twins. Results suggest that (a) trait changes were more profound in the first relative to the second half of the transition to adulthood; (b) traits tend to become more stable during the second half of this transition, with all the traits yielding retest correlations between .74 and .78; (c) Negative Affectivity declined over time, and Constraint increased over time; minimal change was observed on agentic or communal aspects of Positive Emotionality; and (d) both genetic and nonshared environmental factors accounted for personality changes. Overall, these genetically informed results support a life-course perspective on personality development during the transition to adulthood.
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“Behavioral genetic research suggests that some of the personality changes during this period are specifically associated environmental influences”
From Life Events and Personality Trait Change. (2018) · cites this paper as Hopwood et al., 2011
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“Their genetically-informed results support a life-course perspective on personality development during the transition to adulthood.”
From Emerging Adulthood, a Pre-adult Life-History Stage (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Hopwood, C. J., Donnellan, M. B., Blonigen, D. M., Krueger, R. F., McGue, M., Iacono, W. G., & Burt, S. A.
- Affiliations
- Michigan State University (US)
- VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 545-556
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- PMC
- PMC3058678
- OpenAlex
- W2140235280
- Cited by
- 255
- References
- 80
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 19 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 25.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.zora.uzh.ch
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R01 DA05147, R01 AA09367)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Ego Development and Educational Practices
- Keywords
- personality change, coming of age, genetic factors, nonshared environment, negative affectivity, constraints, positive affectivity, agentic and communal traits, personality development
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Personality, Personality Development, Personality Inventory, Social Environment, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic, Young Adult
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