The Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort, 1959-1967: Childhood Personality Data (ICPSR 36737)
The Hawaii Personality and Health Cohort consists of teacher ratings of their students' personalities. John M. (Jack) Digman orchestrated the collection of the child personality data between 1959 and 1967, during his tenure as a professor at the University of Hawaii. Childhood data was collected on 2418 children in classrooms on the islands of Oahu and Kauai. Six waves of data collection were completed, and eighty-eight teachers provided assessments of their students. Children ranged in age from 5 to 14, and were in grades 1,2,3,5 or 6.
The initial goal of this work was to generate ratings using a broad set of items to allow for research on the structure of personality in childhood. The data collection predated the acceptance of the Big Five model of personality. Items were selected to capture the entire range of observable personality, which at the time was thought to be characterized by 10 or more domains. Subsequent analysis by Dr. Digman, and later by Lewis R. (Lew) Goldberg, demonstrated a consistent five factor structure in the child personality data. In the early days of the emergence of the Big Five model of personality structure, the Hawaii child data provided initial evidence to support the acceptance of Big Five model of personality.
Subsequent follow-up of the sample in adulthood has included multiple questionnaires, and assessments of objective markers of health. These follow-up data allowed for the first ever assessment of the stability in the Big Five over a span of 40 years. At average age 50, participants were recruited for a half day clinic visit. Objective markers of health collected at this time have supported work testing childhood personality as a predictor of physical health, and also research testing lifespan pathways linking childhood personality to physical health in adulthood.
This initial release includes the full childhood cohort data. Also included are a set of Big Five scores that have been used in published research on the Hawaii Personality Cohort, and a number of different sets of personality scales derived from these data. Basic demographic information is also provided. Subsequent data releases will include questionnaire and clinic data collected in adulthood.
For additional information about the correspondence between these datasets, please see the accompanying Excel file, which provides a table of overlapping variables across the datasets. Further information about this crosswalk file can be found in the "Item Overlap" section of the accompanying Study Description document.
Demographic variables included in this study include gender, cultural identity, and year of birth.