Developmental authenticity - underlying dynamics of inner work processes.

An emerging body of research attends to grasp the concept of authenticity. Nonetheless, a view on the developmental part with its underlying facets of Inner Work processes, is rare. In this paper, we aim to take a deeper look into the dynamics of inner work processes, that define certain authenticity developmental stages. Building upon our recently proposed "4C-view" of authenticity, we approach this developmental perspective from two different angles: from a process characteristic angle and a developmental level angle. Using vignettes of authentic client personality coaching processes, we propose that the interwoven dynamic between those two aspects yields several combinations of maturity levels within the individual. Continuity as an overarching concept thus contains various developmental authenticity stages that could be identified through different markers and vary in particular contexts.

ADHD Symptoms in Childhood and Big Five Personality Traits in Adolescence: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study in Girls.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood-onset neurodevelopmental condition characterized by developmentally extreme and impairing symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. Great interest has emerged in the ways ADHD and its underlying symptom dimensions relate to the development of personality traits. Much extant research on this topic is cross-sectional, relying on self-report measures and male samples. Herein, we present data from a prospective, longitudinal study of a socioeconomically and racially diverse sample of girls, including those with ADHD and a matched neurotypical comparison sample. We examined how parent- and teacher-reported ADHD in middle childhood relate to self-reported Big Five personality traits in adolescence. As expected, childhood ADHD diagnosis prospectively predicted lower self-reported Conscientiousness, lower Agreeableness, and higher Neuroticism in adolescence. With ADHD diagnosis covaried, Inattention (IA) predicted only low Conscientiousness, Hyperactivity/Impulsivity (HI) predicted only low Agreeableness, and neither predicted adolescent Neuroticism. An exploratory moderator analysis showed that family income moderated the effects of IA and HI on the negativity of adolescent self-descriptions of their own personalities, with more pronounced negative effects for girls in families with higher (rather than lower) income. Familial pressures to achieve in higher-income families may be linked to more pronounced negative ramifications of ADHD on personality development.

Ways of integrating eating into everyday lives - a qualitative study in Germany.

BACKGROUND: Food-related behaviour is a very complex topic. A common way to reduce complex issues to their essential content is to create a typology. In Germany, with regard to food-related behaviour, the creation of a typology has often been carried out by commercial research institutes, but also by (international) scientific institutes. The former have mostly used quantitative methods, the latter usually have a specific content focus. Within this study, we want to investigate how people integrate eating into their everyday lives while engaging with themselves and the environment, thereby living out personality development and related socialisation. METHODS: 37 qualitative interviews were conducted and evaluated by means of content-structuring qualitative analysis and type-forming qualitative content analysis. Interviewees were recruited via recruitment calls using different channels, such as newspapers or university e-mail lists. Participants over the age of seventeen were eligible to take part in the study. Both the individual action processes and the interpretation processes regarding food-related behaviour were taken into account. The final sample consisted of 20 male and 18 female participants with an age range from 18 to 83. RESULTS: The result were seven eating action types, namely: Eating as a way of life, The Relaxed, Eating as self-determination, Eating as a necessary Evil, The Adaptive, The Overstrained and The Controlled. CONCLUSIONS: We contribute to the study of food-related behaviour with the chosen qualitative method of type-building and by looking at how people integrate eating into their everyday lives. This contributes to a broader understanding of this phenomenon and complements the findings of existing commercial and academic food-related typing-building activities. Specifically, through identifying "The Overstrained" as a novel eating action type, this study adds to the literature in the field and may be a useful baseline for future research.

Personality changes related to presence and treatment of substance use (disorders): a systematic review.

Heavy substance use (SU) and substance use disorders (SUD) have complex etiologies and often severe consequences. Certain personality traits have been associated with an increased risk for SU(D), but far less is known about personality changes related to SU(D). This review aims to synthesize the existing literature on this research question. A systematic literature search was conducted from November 2022 to February 2023 in PubMed, EbscoHost, and Web of Science. Peer-reviewed original papers on SU(D)-related personality changes were included. Of 55 included studies, 38 were observational population-based studies and 17 were intervention studies. Overall, personality and SU measures, samples, study designs, and statistical approaches were highly heterogenous. In observational studies, higher SU was most consistently related to increases in impulsivity-related traits and (less so) neuroticism, while interventions in the context of SU(D) were mostly associated with increases in conscientiousness and self-efficacy and lasting decreases in neuroticism. Findings for traits related to extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were mixed and depended on SU measure and age. Studies on bidirectional associations suggest that personality and SU(D) both influence each other over time. Due to their strong association with SU(D), impulsivity-related traits may be important target points for interventions. Future work may investigate the mechanisms underlying personality changes related to SU(D), distinguishing substance-specific effects from general SU(D)-related processes like withdrawal, craving, and loss of control. Furthermore, more research is needed to examine whether SU(D)-related personality changes vary by developmental stage and clinical features (e.g. initial use, onset, remission, and relapse).

Short-term personality development and early career success: Two longitudinal studies during the post-graduation transition.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate short-term personality development during the post-graduation transition. BACKGROUND: Prior research indicates that long-term personality development matters for employment outcomes. However, this evidence is primarily limited to multi-year longitudinal studies. This research switches the focus to personality changes during a shorter, impactful life transition. METHOD: We examined how short-term personality development during the 14-month post-graduation transition relates to early career outcomes among two diverse samples of graduates from universities (N = 816) and community colleges (N = 567). We used latent growth curve models to examine associations between career outcomes measured 14 months after graduation with initial personality levels and personality changes. RESULTS: Results revealed that mean-level changes in personality were small and mostly negative. Moreover, individual differences in personality changes were not associated with career outcomes. However, initial levels of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion positively related to both subjective and objective career success. Initial levels of agreeableness were also positively related to subjective (but not objective) success. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that individual differences in personality trait levels at graduation are stronger predictors of early career success compared to short-term personality changes during the post-graduation transition. Taken together, these results help define the time sequence through which personality changes relate to career outcomes.

Volitional Change in Pathological Traits: Can People Change Their Maladaptive Traits?

Research suggests people want to change their normative personality traits-and they can volitionally do so. However, studies have not yet addressed volitional change in pathological personality. Consequently, the current study examined (a) people's desires to change pathological traits, (b) whether these change goals predict subsequent trait change, (c) whether this withstands controlling normative traits, and (d) the extent to which pathological trait change predicts relevant outcomes. College students (N = 463) self-reported their pathological traits weekly for up to 16 weeks. People with elevated pathological traits generally desired to decrease these traits. Furthermore, goals to change negative affectivity and disinhibition predicted corresponding trait change. Thus, people want to reduce their pathological traits-and they may be able to do so for some traits.

Perfiles de Personalidad en adolescentes con Trastornos por Ansiedad en Población General y Clínica / Personality Profiles in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders in General and Clinical population

La personalidad es el trasfondo que determina la forma de pensar, sentir y comportarse e influye en la psicopatología. En este contexto, resulta relevante el estudio de la relación entre personalidad y ansiedad en la adolescencia. El principal objetivo de nuestro estudio es analizar las diferencias entre casos con Trastornos por Ansiedad (TA) y una muestra de población general (PG) en los diferentes perfiles / prototipos de personalidad (PRP) derivados del el Inventario clínico para adolescentes de Millon (MACI). Un segundo objetivo fue estudiar el modelo más parsimonioso de PRP capaz de predecir TA. Para responder a estos objetivos se utilizó un diseño observacional analítico y se realizó un muestreo aleatorio de adolescentes en PG (n = 461) y consecutivo de pacientes con TA, valorados según criterios DSM-5 (n = 77). Los instrumentos de medida utilizados fueron el MACI y Adolescent Symptom Inventory. Los PRP Introvertidos, Inhibidos, Pesimistas, Sumisos, Oposicionistas, Autopunitivos y Límites presentan una media significativamente mayor en TA y los PRP Histriónico y Egocéntrico en PG. El modelo más parsimonioso de PRP que mejor predice TA está conformado por tener mayor edad y los PRP más límite y menos rebelde. El estudio ofrece una imagen novedosa de los PRP en casos de TA que invitan a su estudio clínico, favoreciendo nuevos caminos de investigación que incluyan la personalidad en la heterogeneidad del trastorno. (AU)

Personality is the background that determines the way we think, feel and behave and influences psychopathology. In this context, the study of the relationship between personality and anxiety in adolescence is important. The main objective of our study is to analyse the differences between cases with Anxiety Disorders (AD) and a sample of general population (GP) in the different personality profiles / prototypes (PRP) derived from the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI). Secondary objective: to study the most parsimonious predictive model of PRP to predict AD. To respond to these objectives, an observational analytical design was used and a random sampling of adolescents in GP (n = 461) and consecutive sampling of patients with AD, assessed according to DSM-5 criteria (n = 77) was performed. The measurement instruments used were the MACI and the Adolescent Symptom Inventory. Introverted, Inhibited, Doleful, Submissive, Oppositional, Self-demeaning and Borderline PRPs present a significantly higher mean in AD and the Dramatizing and Egotistic PRPs in GP. The most parsimonious PRP model that best predicts AD is shaped by having older age and the most Borderline and least Unruly PRPs. The study offers a novel picture of PRPs in AD cases that invite their clinical study, favoring new paths of research that include personality in the heterogeneity of the disorder. (AU)

Hierarchical network structure as the source of hierarchical dynamics (power-law frequency spectra) in living and non-living systems: How state-trait continua (body plans, personalities) emerge from first principles in biophysics.

Living systems are hierarchical control systems that display a small world network structure. In such structures, many smaller clusters are nested within fewer larger ones, producing a fractal-like structure with a 'power-law' cluster size distribution (a mereology). Just like their structure, the dynamics of living systems shows fractal-like qualities: the timeseries of inner message passing and overt behavior contain high frequencies or 'states' (treble) that are nested within lower frequencies or 'traits' (bass), producing a power-law frequency spectrum that is known as a 'state-trait continuum' in the behavioral sciences. Here, we argue that the power-law dynamics of living systems results from their power-law network structure: organisms 'vertically encode' the deep spatiotemporal structure of their (anticipated) environments, to the effect that many small clusters near the base of the hierarchy produce high frequency signal changes and fewer larger clusters at its top produce ultra-low frequencies. Such ultra-low frequencies exert a tonic regulatory pressure that produces morphological as well as behavioral traits (i.e., body plans and personalities). Nested-modular structure causes higher frequencies to be embedded within lower frequencies, producing a power-law state-trait continuum. At the heart of such dynamics lies the need for efficient energy dissipation through networks of coupled oscillators, which also governs the dynamics of non-living systems (e.q., earthquakes, stock market fluctuations). Since hierarchical structure produces hierarchical dynamics, the development and collapse of hierarchical structure (e.g., during maturation and disease) should leave specific traces in system dynamics (shifts in lower frequencies, i.e. morphological and behavioral traits) that may serve as early warning signs to system failure. The applications of this idea range from (bio)physics and phylogenesis to ontogenesis and clinical medicine.

Early adverse stress and depression severity: A pilot exploration of mediating psychological mechanisms.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the associations between early adverse stress, attachment insecurity in adulthood (anxious and avoidant), pathological personality styles (self-criticism and dependency), difficulties in emotion regulation, and depression severity. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 178 outpatients diagnosed with major depression in Santiago, Chile. Participants filled the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form, the Experience in Close Relationships Scale, the Depressive Experience Questionnaire, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item. Full-information maximum likelihood path analyses with bias-corrected bootstrapped confidence intervals were conducted. RESULTS: Anxious attachment in adulthood and self-criticism mediated the association between early adverse stress and depression severity through their effects on difficulties in emotion regulation. Early adverse stress was not associated with avoidant attachment in adulthood and dependency; these variables were indirectly associated with depression severity. Difficulties in emotion regulation were exclusively directly related to depression severity, mediating the effects of the preceding variables. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings propose an integrative model for psychological mechanisms mediating between early adverse stress and depression. Difficulties in emotion regulation should be considered when treating adults with depression exposed to early adverse stress. The contribution of specific types of early adverse stressors and difficulties in emotion regulation should be further explored.

A DAE perspective on the interface between adaptive and maladaptive personality development: A conceptual replication.

This study aimed to examine Dispositional, Adaptational, and Environmental (DAE) variables at the intersection of adaptive and maladaptive personality development as a conceptual replication of the DAE-model (Asendorpf & Motti-Stefanidi, European Journal of Personality, 32(3), 167-185, 2018). In a community sample of adolescents (N = 463; Mage = 13.6 years; 51% female) hypotheses-driven cross-lagged panel models were tested. Longitudinal associations between Dispositional (i.e., neuroticism, disagreeableness and unconscientiousness), Adaptational (i.e., social problems), and Environmental (i.e., perceived quality of the parent-child relationship) variables were investigated. The results partially support the DAE hypotheses. High levels of neuroticism, disagreeableness and social problems were found to predict the perceived quality of the parent-child relationship. In turn, the perceived quality of the parent-child relationship was found to predict levels of unconscientiousness and social problems. No mediation effects were found and, in contrast to DAE hypotheses, results did not indicate bidirectional influences between dispositions and adaptations. The results shed light on differential person-environment interactions that shape personality development and the importance of the perceived quality of the parent-child relationship. These findings provide insight in pathways of personality development, that may lead to personality pathology, and demonstrate the value of the DAE model as a structured guideline that provides testable hypotheses.

Social expectations as a possible mechanism for adult personality change: Limited empirical evidence for the social investment principle.

OBJECTIVE: Personality traits change in both mean levels and variance across the life span but the mechanisms underlying these developmental trends remain unclear. Social Investment Principle (SIP) suggests that social expectations drive personality changes in adulthood. Accordingly, we tested whether differences between personality traits in social expectations for them can explain their different change trajectories in young adulthood. METHODS: A pool of 257 personality items was used to measure personality traits' means and variances (N = 1096), and levels expected by friends, partners and bosses/supervisors (N = 121). RESULTS: Raters were consistent in their expectations for how young adults should think, feel and behave. Traits under stronger expectations had higher mean levels and lower variances than traits under lower expectations; trait means and variances increased with age, but inconsistently with the SIP, these increases were unrelated to the traits' expected levels. CONCLUSION: Our results are only partially consistent with the SIP.

An Integrated Developmental Approach to Personality Disorders in Adolescence: Expanding Kernberg's Object Relations Theory.

This article is a tribute to Dr. Otto F. Kernberg and his contribution to the theoretical understanding of personality pathology in adolescence. In his object relations theory of the structure of personality, an integrated identity is considered central to healthy personality functioning and is contrasted with identity diffusion, which is posited to underlie the maladaptive interpersonal functioning of patients with severe personality disorders. His work provided an early theoretical foundation for the understanding and treatment of personality disorders in adults, but a need remained for a deeper understanding of the development and treatment of personality disorders during adolescence. During the past 10 years, Kernberg has led a group of clinicians and developmental researchers focusing on childhood and adolescence to elaborate an understanding of the development, assessment, and treatment of personality disorders among adolescents. He proposed that in the context of typical development, adolescence is important to the expansion of identity, because it represents the period when sexual and aggressive impulses are integrated and earlier representations of the self and others are revised and become more realistic and nuanced. Furthermore, adolescence entails a reorganization of the moral system and enrichment of the ego ideal. This article presents two methods for assessing personality disorders in adolescence that are based on Kernberg's theory and demonstrates the use of transference-focused psychotherapy for adolescents with personality disorders.

Body mass predicts personality development across 18 years in middle to older adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Various personality traits have longitudinal relations with body mass index (BMI), a measure of body weight and a risk factor for numerous health concerns. We tested these associations' compatibility with causality in either direction. METHOD: Using three waves of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (N = 12,235, Mage  = 53.33 at baseline), we tested how accurately the Five-Factor Model personality domains and their items could collectively predict BMI and change in it with elastic net models. With multilevel models, we tested (a) bidirectional and (b) within-person associations between BMI and personality traits. RESULTS: The five domains were able to predict concurrent (r = 0.08), but not future BMI. Twenty-nine personality items predicted concurrent and future BMI at r = 0.21 and r = 0.16 to 0.25, respectively. Neither the domains nor items could collectively predict change in BMI. Similarly, no individual trait predicted change in BMI, but BMI predicted changes in Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and several items (|b*| = 0.03 to 0.08). BMI had within-person correlations with these same traits; time-invariant third factors like genetics or childhood environments therefore could not (fully) account for their relations. CONCLUSIONS: Body weight may contribute to adults' personality development, but the reverse appears less likely.

Patterns of Personality Development and Psychosocial Functioning in Japanese Adolescents: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study.

While patterns of adolescent personality development are country-specific, previous studies that have examined them have been limited to the Netherlands and Finland. This study aimed to identify the patterns of personality development and examine the relationship between these patterns and psychosocial functioning among Japanese adolescents. Overall, 618 Japanese adolescents (49.5% girls; 16 years) participated in the annual longitudinal survey from 2013 to 2016. Using latent class growth analysis, the following four patterns of personality development were identified: resilient, over-controlled, vulnerable, and moderate. Although the mean-level changes in the Big Five domains were generally insignificant among the four patterns, the vulnerable pattern showed a progressive increase in conscientiousness, and the moderate pattern showed a decrease in neuroticism and an increase in conscientiousness. Furthermore, multivariate analysis of variance tests indicated that the resilient pattern showed higher subjective well-being and lower psychosocial problems than the other personality patterns; the over-controlled pattern showed higher internalizing problems than the resilient pattern; the vulnerable pattern showed lower subjective well-being and higher internalizing problems than the other patterns; and the moderate pattern scored between the resilient, over-controlled, and vulnerable patterns in both subjective well-being and psychosocial problems. These findings suggest that the vulnerable and moderate patterns, which are immature patterns compared to the resilient and over-controlled ones, showed positive changes to the direction of maturity from middle to late adolescence in Japan.

Lighten the darkness: Personality interventions targeting agreeableness also reduce participants' levels of the dark triad.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research suggests that people want to change their big five traits-and moreover, they may be able to do so. This paper extends these findings in three ways. First, I examined the extent to which people want to change their levels of the dark triad-Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Second, I tested whether desires to change the dark triad predicted actual changes in the corresponding traits across approximately four months. Finally, participants received an intervention designed to change their big five personality traits. Consequently, I tested whether this intervention could also facilitate changes in the dark triad. METHOD: The present study was a 16-wave, weekly, intensive longitudinal design (N = 467). RESULTS: Results revealed that participants generally did not want to change their levels of the dark triad. Nevertheless, individual variance in desires to change the dark triad did predict actual changes in the dark triad across four months. Moreover, interventions targeting agreeableness spurred changes in all three dark triad traits. CONCLUSIONS: This research suggests that taking small steps to become more agreeable may also reduce individuals' levels of the dark triad. These findings may have implications for future research, as well as therapeutic treatments.

Self-control in adolescence predicts forgivingness in middle adulthood.

INTRODUCTION: This 33-year study examined associations between self-control development in adolescence and forgivingness, i.e., the dispositional tendency to forgive others, in middle adulthood. METHODS: Participants were 1350 adults aged 45 years (50.6% female). Self-control was measured yearly from age 12 to 16, while forgivingness was measured at age 45. RESULTS: Results indicated significant individual differences in level and change of self-control across the adolescent years and an average mean-level increase. Individual differences in level and change in self-control were independently associated with forgivingness in middle adulthood. Individuals who either entered adolescence with higher self-control, and/or increased in self-control during the adolescent years, reported higher scores in forgivingness at age 45 compared to peers. This pattern held even after controlling for gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and conduct problems in adolescence. CONCLUSION: The current findings demonstrate that developmental processes in adolescence are important for individual differences in the dispositional tendency to forgive others in adulthood.

Four types of change and self-other agreement on change in personality traits during college years: A multi-informant longitudinal study.

Research in personality trait change has largely relied on mean-level and rank-order change across the lifespan. The current research expanded the literature in several ways: analyzing four types of change and correlated change patterns, obtaining multi-informant reports, including lower-order personality traits, and collecting multiple assessments during a short yet important time for college-attending emerging adults (baseline N = 259, Mage  = 18.79). There was little evidence for mean-level change, yet participants showed significant individual differences such that rank-ordering and ipsative profiles were much more dynamic than mean score patterns. Informant-reports from close others demonstrated largely similar patterns: little to no mean-level change, significant increase in rank-ordering, and about half of participants reporting configural change mostly in elevation and scatter rather than in profile shapes. Interestingly, there was no correlated change between self and other-reports. This indicated that close others do not share individuals' perception of their own personality trait change, at least not in the demographic group studied. By examining individual-level, sample-level, and multi-informant perspectives, our thorough investigation provided useful benchmarks for future research to examine the source of variability in change trajectories.

Emerging personality in adolescence: developmental trajectories, internalizing and externalizing problems, and the role of mentalizing abilities.

INTRODUCTION: Identifying longitudinal trajectories of emerging personality (EP) is crucial to highlight developmental patterns that might foster personality pathology in adolescence and early adulthood. Research on the exacerbation of personality pathology in adolescence identifies the significant contribution of internalizing and externalizing problems and suggests the importance of considering aspects such as mentalization, while accounting for gender differences. METHODS: In our study, we adopted a mixed-model approach to (1) explore longitudinally EP (Adolescent Personality Structure Questionnaire; APS-Q) over 12 months in a sample of adolescents (N = 178, 62% females, mAGE = 15.04, SD = 1.27), accounting for gender effects. Moreover, (2) we assessed the longitudinal effect of internalizing and externalizing problems (Youth Self-Report; YSR-112) on EP. Finally, (3) we addressed the moderating role of mentalization (Movie Assessment for Social Cognition; MASC) in this developmental pathway. RESULTS: Results highlighted a two-way pattern of EP. No changes were found in the level of difficulties in Self-acceptance, Investments and Goals, and Relationships with family dimensions. However, significant changes were found in personality functioning in the dimensions of Sense of Self, Aggression, and Relationships with friends. More, changes in difficulties in Sexuality emerged only in females. Also, gender differences emerged in the level of severity of EP. In addition, Internalizing and Externalizing problems differentially predicted difficulties in personality dimensions. Finally, mentalizing features moderated the relationship between Internalizing problems and Sense of Self and Internalizing problems and Self-acceptance, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our contribution aligns with recent developmental models of personality pathology, suggesting that different personality dimensions develop at different paces. More, it highlights the predictive power of externalizing and internalizing problems on difficulties in personality dimensions. Finally, it advances the discussion on the contribution of mentalizing abilities to EP.

Does intelligence predict development of investment traits from mid to late adolescence? Evidence from a 3-year longitudinal study.

INTRODUCTION: Investment theories have claimed reciprocal relations between intelligence and investment traits (i.e., personality traits related to seeking out, and dealing with, cognitive challenges). However, previous research has primarily addressed the effects of investment traits on intellectual development (environmental enrichment hypothesis) and often focused on either childhood or later adulthood. The present study investigated the effects of intelligence on investment traits (environmental success hypothesis) from mid to late adolescence. METHOD: In a 3-year longitudinal survey (2008-2011) covering four measurement occasions, the predictive effects of both fluid and crystallized intelligence on intraindividual change in both the achievement motive (i.e., hope for success and fear of failure) and need for cognition were examined. Overall, 476 adolescents (t1 : Mage = 16.43, SD = 0.55; 51.3% girls) from Germany participated. RESULTS: Second-order latent growth models indicated that fluid intelligence predicted a steeper growth in hope for success (ß = .40), but was unrelated to change in the other investment traits. Crystallized intelligence had no effects on the investment traits under study. CONCLUSIONS: The results contribute to the research on the bidirectionality of intelligence and investment traits and add to our understanding of personality development from mid to late adolescence. Specifically, they underline the importance of nurturing hope for success especially in individuals with lower intelligence, but also show that support for the environmental success hypothesis seems to be limited to certain investment traits.

Social expectations and abilities to meet them as possible mechanisms of youth personality development.

OBJECTIVE: Personality traits change from childhood through late-adolescence, however the effects of social expectations and self-regulatory efforts remain unknown. This study aims to explore mechanisms underlying personality development by assessing mean levels personality traits from childhood to late-adolescence. METHOD: We used Common-Language California Child Q-Set to measure youths' (N = 11,000) mean personality trait levels; social expectations for these traits as perceived by parents (N = 47), teachers (N = 42) and students (N = 120); and self-regulatory efforts required for achieving the desired levels in these traits as perceived by parents (N = 27), teachers (N = 26), and students (N = 54). RESULTS: Expectations for youths' traits were consistent, regardless of raters' or youths' age. In our unique between-trait study design, traits' mean levels were positively associated with expectations for them, but age differences minimally tracked these expectations. Traits' required self-regulatory efforts were not associated with their developmental trends. CONCLUSIONS: Results were only partially consistent with existing developmental theories of personality development.