A questionnaire for measuring the Big Five in late childhood

A study is presented which aims at measuring the Big Five factors in late childhood through self-report as well as parent and teacher ratings. First, several factor analyses examined self-report and teacher and parent ratings on a 65-item questionnaire developed for assessing the Big Five. Five clear factors emerged from these analyses conducted on self-report and other ratings of elementary and junior high school children. Factors showed a high degree of congruence. Self-reports, parent and teacher ratings resulted moderately although significantly convergent. Second, as a validation step, the Big Five factors were used as concurrent predictors of academic achievement and of Externalizing and Internalizing problematic behavior syndromes. Intellect/Openness rand Conscientiousness resulted as important predictors of Academic Achievement. Externalizing problems were associated to low Conscientiousness and low Emotional Stability, Internalizing problems, to low Emotional Stability. Finally, also the correlations of the Big Five factors with the dimensions of Sybil Eysenck's Junior Personality Questionnaire further corroborated the construct validity of the questionnaire. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.