Childhood personality and teacher ratings of conscientiousness predict career success four decades later

Abstract

Personality traits play an important role in the prediction of career success. We know from previous studies that Conscientiousness and Neuroticism are the most prominent candidates (Barrick et al., 2001; Judge et al., 1999). But most previous data lack from being cross-sectional. In the current investigation we therefore examined the prediction across a timespan of forty years. Analyses were based on a representative sample (N = 745; T1: M = 11.9 years, SD = 0.6; T2: M = 51.7 years, SD = 0.6). We examined in several longitudinal path models the influence of childhood personality (self-report) and teacher ratings on different measures of extrinsic and intrinsic career success (income, occupational status, job satisfaction). Especially facets of Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and the teacher rating were predictive for career success forty years later even after controlling for intelligence and socioeconomic status at T1. We also investigated in the role of education in this nomological network by means of mediation and moderation analyses.