Social Expectations and Abilities to Meet Them as Possible Mechanisms of Youth Personality Development

Abstract

Rationale: Personality traits change in both mean levels and variance from childhood through mid-adolescence, but the mechanisms underlying these developmental trends remain unknown. We tested the possible roles of social pressure and self-regulation. Methods: The Common-Language California Child Q-Set was used to measure youths’ mean-level personality, social expectations for youths’ behavior from multiple perspectives (parents, teachers, peers) and the self-regulatory requirements for achieving the desired trait levels. Results: There were consistent expectations for youths’ traits, regardless of who described the expectations or whether these pertained to children or adolescents. Mean trait levels were moderately commensurate with social expectations, but age differences in the means did not follow these expectations. Traits with strong expectations showed more pronounced individual differences and increased even more in variance with age. In contrast, traits’ self-regulation requirements did not predict their developmental trends. Implications: Strong social expectations may contribute to the development of individual differences.