Personality development from age 2 to 33: Stability and change in ego resiliency and ego control and associations with adult adaptation.

The purpose of this study was to examine the developmental course and implications of the personality metatraits ego resiliency and ego control across the first 3 decades of life. The sample consisted of 139 participants who were assessed 9 times between ages 2 and 33. Participants completed measures of ego resiliency, ego control, Big Five personality traits, identity development, and positive and negative well-being. The findings indicated strong stability of ego resiliency, in terms of both rank-order and mean-level change. Ego control also demonstrated stability over the full time span, but there was greater change in childhood relative to adolescence and adulthood. Ego resiliency and control were associated with adult well-being, but these associations were generally accounted for by the Big Five traits. Finally, there were small relations between ego resiliency and control in childhood and later adult identity development processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).