Neighbourhood deprivation and the Big Five personality traits
associations with adolescent problem behaviour and educational attainment
Jaap Nieuwenhuis (Zhejiang University, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
Tom Kleinepier (ABF Research)
H.J. Janssen (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Freiburg)
M. van Ham (TU Delft - Urbanism, University of St Andrews)
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Abstract
We studied the relation between cumulative exposure to neighbourhood deprivation and adolescents’ Big Five personality traits, and the moderating role of personality in the relation between neighbourhood deprivation and the development of problem behaviour and educational attainment. We studied 5365 British adolescents from ages 10 to 16, with neighbourhood information from birth onwards. Extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, and openness to experience moderated the relation between deprivation and problem behaviour. For educational attainment, only extraversion was a moderator. This means that higher values on personality traits were related to weaker relations between neighbourhood deprivation and problem behaviour and educational attainment. The results showed the importance of taking into account adolescents’ personality when assessing developmental outcomes in relation to neighbourhood deprivation.
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