Personality and Cultural Correlates of Childhood Psychopathology

Cultural pluralism, especially salient in North America, has become a worldwide reality. As a result, collectivistic and individualistic cultures are frequently forced to live side by side. These cultures can be differentiated by their respective values: thus, independence is highly valued in individualistic cultures while interdependence is identified as a main characteristic of collectivistic cultures. Therefore, individual differences (e.g. personality traits and domains of psychopathology) may show theoretically relevant patterns across these cultural groups. We hypothesized that children from collectivistic cultures, relative to children from individualistic cultures, would present with personality profiles often connected to internalizing disorders. Specifically, we proposed that based on the Five Factor Model these children would score higher on Agreeableness and lower on Extraversion, which is consistent with an internalizing personality profile. We also predicted that children from individualistic cultures, relative to children from collectivistic cultures, would present with personality profiles often connected to externalizing disorders. Specifically, we hypothesized that these children would score higher on Extraversion and lower on Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, which is consistent with an externalizing personality profile. We collected data on a large ethnically diverse community-based sample (N=176) of children in middle childhood (primarily ages 9-10). Multivariate tests showed significant differences in personality profiles of different cultural groups. Differences between internalizing and externalizing personality profiles were consistent with our hypotheses. Heterogeneity of personality profiles exhibited by the members of the collectivistic group questioned the categorical construal of individualism/collectivism. The study contributes to a better understanding of personality profiles and psychopathology predisposition of children of migrants to Canada.