Personality variability is an important individual difference construct that is the focus of major psychological theories and relates to socioemotional functioning. Although cross-situational personality variability has been studied extensively in adult populations, little is known about variability in children's personality. In this study, we aimed to address this gap in knowledge by evaluating whether cross-situational variability is a potentially meaningful individual difference in youth. We used a "thin slice" approach in which research assistants viewed videos of 324 children (Mage = 9.92) completing 15 standardized tasks and rated youth's Big Five personality states. Cross-situational variability in each personality state was estimated by calculating within-person standard deviations across tasks. Results showed that (a) there is substantial variability in children's personality states; (b) children who are variable in one personality domain tend to be variable in other domains; and (c) more variable children are described by their parents as being less competent, less agreeable, less conscientious, and more neurotic. However, associations with parent-rated external criterion were generally small in magnitude, and key psychometric properties of the thin slice personality variability index are not well-established. Our study adds tentative but promising evidence that individual differences in cross-situational personality variability are not only present in childhood but may be consequential. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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童年人格状态的跨情境变异性。


人格变异是一种重要的个体差异结构，是主要心理学理论的焦点，并与社会情绪功能相关。尽管跨情境人格变异性已在成年人群中得到广泛研究，但人们对儿童人格变异性知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们旨在通过评估跨情境变异性是否是年轻人中潜在的有意义的个体差异来解决这一知识差距。我们采用“薄片”方法，让研究助理观看 324 名儿童（Mage = 9.92）完成 15 项标准化任务的视频，并对青少年的大五人格状态进行评级。通过计算跨任务的人内标准差来估计每种人格状态的跨情境变异性。结果表明：(a) 儿童的人格状态存在很大差异； (b) 在某一人格领域存在差异的儿童往往在其他人格领域也存在差异； (c) 父母认为变化较大的孩子能力较差、不太随和、较不认真、更神经质。然而，与父母评价的外部标准的关联程度通常较小，并且薄片人格变异指数的关键心理测量特性尚未确定。我们的研究增加了初步但有希望的证据，表明跨情境人格变异的个体差异不仅存在于童年，而且可能会产生后果。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。