The longitudinal relationships between adolescent religious values and personality

•We use a reciprocal influence model to examine the longitudinal relationship between religious values and personality.•Religious values predict increases in Agreeableness relative to concurrent levels of Agreeableness.•Religious values predict decreases in Psychoticism relative to concurrent levels of Psychoticism.

This research examined the longitudinal relationships between personality and religious values. High school students in Grades 10 (381 males, 384 females; mean age = 15.40 yrs) and Grade 12 (195 males, 215 females; mean age = 17.02 yrs) completed personality and religious measures as part of the Wollongong Youth Study. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that religious values at Time 1 predicted an increase in Agreeableness and a decrease in Psychoticism at Time 2. These effects were confirmed to be independent of each other when the SEMs included both Agreeableness and Psychoticism. Results are discussed with reference to the implications of religious values for the development of personality.