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The emergence of sex differences in personality traits in early adolescence: A cross-sectional, cross-cultural study

De Bolle M 1 , De Fruyt F 1 , McCrae RR 2 , Löckenhoff CE 3 , Costa PT 4 , Aguilar-Vafaie ME 5 Show all authors , Ahn CK 6 , Ahn HN 7 , Alcalay L 8 , Allik J 9 , Avdeyeva TV 10 , Bratko D 11 , Brunner-Sciarra M 12 , Cain TR 13 , Chan W 14 , Chittcharat N 15 , Crawford JT 16 , Fehr R 17 , Ficková E 18 , Gelfand MJ 19 , Graf S 20 , Gülgöz S 21 , Hřebíčková M 20 , Jussim L 14 , Klinkosz W 22 , Knežević G 23 , Leibovich de Figueroa N 24 , Lima MP 25 , Martin TA 26 , Marušić I 27 , Mastor KA 28 , Nakazato K 29 , Nansubuga F 30 , Porrata J 2 , Purić D 23 , Realo A 9 , Reátegui N 31 , Rolland JP 32 , Schmidt V 24 , Sekowski A 33 , Shakespeare-Finch J 34 , Shimonaka Y 35 , Simonetti F 8 , Siuta J 36 , Szmigielska B 36 , Vanno V 15 , Wang L 37 , Yik M 38 , Terracciano A 39

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology
  • 2 Independent Practice
  • 3 Department of Human Development, Cornell University
  • 4 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine
  • 5 Department of Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University
  • 6 Department of Education, Pusan National University
  • 7 Department of Psychology, Ewha Womans University
  • 8 Escuela de Psicologia, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
  • 9 Department of Psychology, University of Tartu
  • 10 Graduate School of Professional Psychology, University of St. Thomas
  • 11 Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb
  • 12 Instituto de Medicina Genetica, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
  • 13 School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
  • 14 Department of Psychology, Rutgers University
  • 15 Department of Psychology, Srinakharinwirot University
  • 16 Department of Psychology, College of New Jersey
  • 17 Foster School of Business, University of Washington
  • 18 Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
  • 19 Department of Psychology, University of Maryland
  • 20 Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
  • 21 College of Social Science and Humanities, Koç University
  • 22 Department of Psychology, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
  • 23 Department of Psychology, Belgrade University
  • 24 Research Institute, Department of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires
  • 25 Research Centre of the Study and Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention, University of Coimbra
  • 26 Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Classical Studies, Susquehanna University
  • 27 Institute for Social Research in Zagreb
  • 28 Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  • 29 Faculty of Social Welfare, Tokyo University of Social Welfare
  • 30 Institute of Psychology, Makerere University
  • 31 Department of Psychology, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia
  • 32 Département de Sciences Psychologiques, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
  • 33 Department of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
  • 34 School of Psychology & Counselling, Queensland University of Technology
  • 35 Department of Human Studies, Bunkyo Gakuin University
  • 36 Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University
  • 37 Department of Psychology, Peking University
  • 38 Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
  • 39 Department of Geriatrics, Florida State University College of Medicine
J Pers Soc Psychol, 2015 Jan;108(1):171-185.
PMID: 25603371 DOI: 10.1037/a0038497

Abstract

Although large international studies have found consistent patterns of sex differences in personality traits among adults (i.e., women scoring higher on most facets), less is known about cross-cultural sex differences in adolescent personality and the role of culture and age in shaping them. The present study examines the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (McCrae, Costa, & Martin, 2005) informant ratings of adolescents from 23 cultures (N = 4,850), and investigates culture and age as sources of variability in sex differences of adolescents' personality. The effect for Neuroticism (with females scoring higher than males) begins to take on its adult form around age 14. Girls score higher on Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness at all ages between 12 and 17 years. A more complex pattern emerges for Extraversion and Agreeableness, although by age 17, sex differences for these traits are highly similar to those observed in adulthood. Cross-sectional data suggest that (a) with advancing age, sex differences found in adolescents increasingly converge toward adult patterns with respect to both direction and magnitude; (b) girls display sex-typed personality traits at an earlier age than boys; and (c) the emergence of sex differences was similar across cultures. Practical implications of the present findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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