Can personality traits and intelligence compensate for background disadvantage? Predicting status attainment in adulthood.

Damian, Rodica Ioana; Su, Rong; Shanahan, Michael J; Trautwein, Ulrich; Roberts, Brent W

doi:10.1037/pspp0000024

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Damian, R. I., Su, R., Shanahan, M. J., Trautwein, U., & Roberts, B. W. (2015). Can personality traits and intelligence compensate for background disadvantage? Predicting status attainment in adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(3), 473–489. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000024

Abstract

This study investigated the interplay of family background and individual differences, such as personality traits and intelligence (measured in a large U.S. representative sample of high school students; N = 81,000) in predicting educational attainment, annual income, and occupational prestige 11 years later. Specifically, we tested whether individual differences followed 1 of 3 patterns in relation to parental socioeconomic status (SES) when predicting attained status: (a) the independent effects hypothesis (i.e., individual differen