Personality development at school : assessing a reciprocal influence model of teachers' evaluations and students' personality

We examined, over 4 years, the interrelationships between changes in teachers' ratings of student behaviour and changes in students' self-reports of their personality. Participants were Australian high school students in Grades 8-11 (Ns were 891, 763, 778, and 571, respectively). Teachers evaluated students' behavioral problems and overall adjustment, whereas students reported on their levels of Eysenckian psychoticism (P), a personality trait relevant in the school setting. We found some evidence of bidirectional influences between P and evaluations of adjustment and behavioral problems. These results are discussed with reference to transactional models of personality change.