Poster #201 - Associations Between Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and Peer-Reported Social Behaviors

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Researchers have identified personality traits as a key source of individual differences in social behavior (McCrae & Costa, 1999). Accordingly, researchers have shown that traits such as extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are positively associated with self-reported social competence and peer acceptance and negatively associated with self-reported aggression and antisocial behavior (Asendorpf & van Aken, 2003; Festa et al; 2012; Loveland et al., 2007). However, most studies of associations between personality traits and social behavior with peers have relied on self-reported behavior or, occasionally, adult-reported social behavior, with a few exceptions. In one study of peer-reported social behaviors, Jensen-Campbell and colleagues (2002) found that agreeableness and conscientiousness were negatively correlated with peer-reported aggression and agreeableness was negatively correlated with peer-reported victimization, while extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were uncorrelated with peer-reported prosocial behavior. In a similar study, Wolters and colleagues (2014) found that extraversion correlated positively with peer-reported prosocial and antisocial behavior and negatively with social withdrawal, while agreeableness correlated positively with prosocial behavior and negatively with antisocial behavior and social withdrawal. Nonetheless, researchers have yet to thoroughly examine associations between personality traits and peer-reported social behaviors and experiences, particularly in terms of examining personality traits simultaneously to investigate which traits make the strongest unique contributions to social behavior. Thus, the present study examined associations between extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and peer-reported social behaviors. We hypothesized that extraversion would be associated with less shyness/withdrawal and greater sociability, agreeableness and conscientiousness would be associated with less aggression and greater prosocial behavior, and all three traits would be related to less victimization and exclusion.

Participants were 180 adolescents (42% male) in eighth grade (M age = 13.59). Participants reported on their extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness using the Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999). Peers nominated classmates for behaviors related to shyness/withdrawal, popularity/sociability, aggression, prosocial behavior, victimization, and exclusion using the Extended Class Play (Wojslawowicz et al., 2006).

Hypotheses were tested using a saturated path model with robust Huber-White standard errors. Extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were entered simultaneously as predictors of each peer-reported social outcome. Extraversion was negatively related to shyness/withdrawal and positively related to popularity/sociability. Extraversion was positively associated with aggression, while agreeableness was negatively related to aggression. Agreeableness was positively associated with prosocial behavior. Conscientiousness was negatively associated with victimization. No trait was significantly associated with exclusion, although there was a marginally significant negative association between extraversion and exclusion.

The results suggest that extraversion is consistently related to the degree to which adolescents integrate into the peer group, as it is positively associated with popularity/sociability and negatively associated with shyness/withdrawal. However, extraversion is also associated with heightened aggression. Agreeableness is consistently related to positive social behavior, as it is linked to lower aggression and higher prosocial behavior. Unexpectedly, only conscientiousness was associated with peer victimization, perhaps because adolescents low on conscientiousness are less careful and deliberate and make easier targets for aggressors (Tani et al., 2003). Therefore, different personality traits seem to relate to different aspects of social behavior and peer experiences.

Authors

• Kelly Alexandra Smith, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Lindsay Druskin, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kenneth H. Rubin, Department of Human Development & Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author