In plain language
Psychoticism — sometimes called “toughmindedness” — is a personality trait marked by impulsiveness, aggression and low empathy. Previous research had linked it to delinquency and antisocial behaviour in young people, but almost nothing was known about whether it affects how teenagers actually feel over time. This study asked: does psychoticism at age 12 shape a teenager’s emotional well-being a year later — or does poor emotional well-being drive psychoticism instead?
As part of the Wollongong Youth Study, 660 Australian students completed measures of psychoticism and of hostility, fear, sadness and joy in their first year of high school (average age 12) and again twelve months later. Structural equation modelling was used to trace which came first: the trait or the emotions.
The trait clearly came first: emotional states did not predict later psychoticism, but psychoticism predicted worsening emotional well-being — in gender-specific ways. Girls high in psychoticism became more hostile, sadder and more fearful a year later, while boys high in psychoticism experienced declining joy. The authors suggest these emotional shifts may help explain why high-psychoticism young people drift into antisocial behaviour and shrinking, less rewarding social worlds — a “downward spiral” worth targeting early.
Key findings
- Psychoticism at age 12 predicted decreases in emotional well-being at age 13, while emotional states did not predict later psychoticism — suggesting the trait drives the emotions, not the reverse.
- Among girls, psychoticism predicted increases in hostility (explaining 9.9% of the variance in later hostility), sadness (2.8%) and fear (1.2%) one year later.
- Among boys, psychoticism predicted decreases in joy one year later (explaining 3.4% of the variance in later joy).
- The structure of psychoticism differed by gender: items about fighting were much stronger indicators of psychoticism in girls than in boys, possibly because fighting is less culturally normative for girls.
- Boys scored substantially higher than girls on psychoticism at both time points (large effect sizes), and the trait was highly stable across the year (r = .53 for boys, .63 for girls).
- The authors propose a “downward positive spiral”: antisocial behaviour by high-psychoticism youth alienates others, reducing rewarding social contact and positive emotion over time.
How to cite
APA
Ciarrochi, J., & Heaven, P. C. L. (2007). Longitudinal examination of the impact of Eysenck’s psychoticism dimension on emotional well-being in teenagers. Personality and Individual Differences, 42(4), 597–608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.07.022
BibTeX
@article{ciarrochi2007longitudinal,
author = {Ciarrochi, Joseph and Heaven, Patrick C. L.},
title = {Longitudinal examination of the impact of {Eysenck}'s psychoticism dimension on emotional well-being in teenagers},
journal = {Personality and Individual Differences},
year = {2007},
volume = {42},
number = {4},
pages = {597--608},
doi = {10.1016/j.paid.2006.07.022}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.