Establishing construct validity for Openness-to-Experience in middle childhood: Contributions from personality and temperament

Controversy exists over the validity of child Openness-to-Experience (OE). To establish construct validity for child OE, data were collected for 346 children (51% girls) aged 9-to-10-years (M = 9.92, SD = 0.83). Parents completed questionnaires about their children’s personality, temperament, and behavioral problems and competencies. Factor analyses of relevant personality and temperament facets revealed a robust OE factor made up of three facets: Intellect, Imagination, and Sensitivity. Evidence for convergent and discriminant validity was established via associations with other personality traits, and behavioral problems and competencies. Results underscore the importance of drawing from both temperament and personality literatures in attempts to establish construct validity for child trait domains as well as examining facet-level associations between OE and child behavior.

► We establish construct validity for Openness-to-Experience (OE) in children. ► The OE factor is made up of three facets: Intellect, Imagination, and Sensitivity. ► The OE facets are made up of items from both personality and temperament measures. ► The factor shows expected associations with other traits and behavioral outcomes. ► Facets show differential associations with behavioral problems and competencies.