A study of personality in children aged 8–12 years: Comparing self‐ and parents' ratings

Abstract

This cross‐sectional study was designed to investigate personality in children aged 8–12 years. Children's self‐perceptions were compared to parent's ratings. Parents of 506 children completed the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC) and children completed a selection of 38 questions from the HiPIC. Results showed that children aged 11–12 years present higher structural congruence, higher reliabilities and higher mean correlation with parents' description than children aged 8–9 years. Interestingly reliabilities of parents' ratings were also higher for older children. Mean levels were higher in younger children for Imagination in parents' ratings and for Benevolence, Conscientiousness and Imagination, in children's ratings. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.