Personality development at school: Assessing a reciprocal influence model of teachers’ evaluations and students’ personality

We examined, over 4 years, the interrelationships between changes in teachers’ ratings of student behavior and changes in students’ self-reports of their personality. Participants were Australian high school students in Grades 8–11 (Ns were 891, 763, 778, and 571, respectively). Teachers evaluated students’ behavioral problems and overall adjustment, whereas students reported on their levels of Eysenckian psychoticism (P), a personality trait relevant in the school setting. We found some evidence of bidirectional influences between P and evaluations of adjustment and behavioral problems. These results are discussed with reference to transactional models of personality change.