Personality and lif transitions in early adulthood

Current theories of personality development stress the importance of age-graded life transitions, such as graduating from school, marrying, or becoming a parent, over and above genetic maturation processes. This chapter reviews the current state of scientific evidence regarding the impact of major life transitions on personality change in young adulthood. It focuses on the Big Five personality trait domains of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, which represent an optimal balance between conceptual breadth, descriptive fidelity, and generalizability across samples and measures. The chapter reviews the literature on personality trait stability and change in young adulthood. It discusses findings from longitudinal studies that have investigated whether and to what degree personality traits change in response to major life transitions in the domains of love and work. Specifically, the chapter focuses on studies that have examined either of three life transitions that normatively occur during the period of young adulthood: the first romantic relationship, graduation from school/college, and parenthood. It defines life transitions and proposes a general model to explain why and how these life events may impact personality traits. The chapter concludes by outlining important areas for future research on personality change in young adulthood.