Personality maturation through sense of mastery? Longitudinal evidence from two education-to-work transition studies.

Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 2985194R Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1467-6494 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00223506 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Pers Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 1998- : Malden, Ma. : Blackwell Publishers
Original Publication: Durham, N. C. : Duke University Press, c1946-

Personality Development* ; Personality*; Young Adult ; Humans ; Adult ; Emotions ; Personality Disorders ; Longitudinal Studies

Objective: Why personality changes in young adulthood remains a critical theoretical and empirical question. We studied personality change during the education-to-work transition, including mean-level personality change and its specific timing, the degree of individual variability in change, and the link between sense of mastery and personality change.
Methods: We used two intensive longitudinal studies. Study 1 included 5 waves of data across 2 years during the university-to-work transition (N = 309; mean-aged 25). Study 2 included 3 waves of data across 8 months during an internship-heavy teacher education program (N = 317; mean-aged 22). We measured personality traits and work-related mastery with questionnaires and personality states and general mastery with the experience sampling method.
Results: First, we found no evidence for mean-level personality maturation but decreases in trait Conscientiousness. Second, young adults differed significantly in personality trait and state change. Third, young adults with higher levels of work-related sense of mastery showed more positive changes in trait Conscientiousness. Decreases in general sense of mastery predicted later decreases in state Emotional Stability and vice versa. Change in general sense of mastery correlated with personality state change.
Conclusions: Sense of mastery seems to be part of a dynamic short-term process underlying personality change in young adulthood.
(© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

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H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Keywords: Big Five traits; education-to-work transition; experience sampling data; personality development; personality states; sense of mastery; young adulthood

Date Created: 20221117 Date Completed: 20240104 Latest Revision: 20240104

20240104

10.1111/jopy.12789

36394106