Children's personality traits and emotions: evidence of validity

Abstract

The present study analyzed the relationships among personality traits and self-perception of the emotions related to happiness, sadness, courage and fear to gather evidences of validity. The Escala de Traços de Personalidade para Crianças (Personality Traits Scale for Children) and the Autopercepção de Emoções (Self- Perception of Emotion Test) were collectively applied on 1095 children aged 8 to 10 years old, in their own classroom. Regarding to psychoticism and neuroticism traits, the hypotheses were confirmed. For the first one positive correlations were found for courage and sadness, and negative correlations for happiness; for the last one the major part of the significant coefficients were related to fear and sadness. Concerning extroversion trait the expectation of positive correlation with happiness and courage and negative correlation with sadness were confirmed, although there were exceptions. Finally, about sociability trait, the hypothesis was partially confirmed, since there were no significant correlations between boys and the evaluated emotions.