Estabilidade temporal e correlatos desenvolvimentais do traço de neuroticismo em crianças em fase escolar

Abstract

Neuroticism (N) is one of the most studied traits in the history of the personality psychology. The current evidence has pointed the importance of studying the impact of Neuroticism in some aspects of child development. Therefore, this study aimed to verify the temporal stability of N and its relations with some aspects of child development. The data were collected in a group of 368 children from a federal public school of Belo Horizonte. To all participants of the study were applied completed intelligence and school performance tests, two instruments of self-report of personality and the anthropometric assessment. Children's parents filled out a questionnaire of adaptive functioning. The results point to the existence of moderated temporal stability of N in both self-reports used. There were no significant associations between N and anthropometric measures. The Neuroticism predicted the academic performance, even when the effect of intelligence was controlled. N also had association with the adaptive functioning of children. It was concluded that Neuroticism, in fact, has significant impact on the development of children in school years.