Do Kids Develop Their Personalities Before Adolescence?

Psychoanalytic Theory

• In the opinion of one of the most influential personality theorists, Dr. Sigmund Freud, personality mainly forms in the first six years of childhood. Freud's personality theory has three components, the Id, Ego and Superego. The Id exists in the unconscious and is made up of biological needs and primal instincts, fully established and developed at birth. As the child grows and starts to experience reality in the first two years of life, the Ego is formed, creating a voice of reason for the Id. The Superego represents the concept of the "ideal self," as defined by society and learned through the parents.

Psychosocial Theory

• Erik Erikson, a student of Freud's, looked at personality development from a more social perspective. Erikson based his theory on eight "psychosocial" stages the ego -- or conscious part of the personality -- underwent from infancy to adulthood. According to Erikson, each stage presents a social challenge. The direction of personality development is dependent on the outcome of each challenge, resulting in a personality that is formed from an individual's interaction with their social environment. The adolescence stage was most crucial for personality formation, described in a 2009 Education.com article, due to the "transition from childhood to adulthood." This is a time when different aspects of the personality and identity can be retained or rejected as the adolescent experiments with traits trying to find a psychological match that fits the extreme changes happening socially and biologically.

Trait Theory

• More recent developments in personality psychology shows evidence of the personality being made up of varying degrees of inherent character traits. These traits have been measured and grouped using five universally identified dimensions: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience. De Clercq et. al. applied the Five-Factor Model to the field of childhood psychology in a study using a sample of nearly 500 children with an average age of 10 to 11 years. His findings found four clear and different personality types, as published in the June 2012 "Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry," which points to a more biologically determined personality, developed early on.

Parental Influence on Childhood Personality Development

• The De Clercq et. al. study not only identified four different personality types in children, but also found the different types to be significant indicators of vulnerabilities to a child's psychological well-being over time. An individual's personality is not a static state, and if a child's emerging personality gave signs of possible problems to come, then it stands to reason that the factors influencing the child's personality could be looked at and reassessed. It has been noted that -- particularly in the adolescent years -- parenting style has one of the biggest influences on the development of personality and identity, starting from birth. A parenting style that conveys high standards and offers open communication is the style that is described on Education.com as the most successful at giving an adolescent the support they need so they can feel comfortable exploring their personality, which -- though developed -- will continue to evolve.