Adolescent Conscientiousness Predicts Lower Lifetime Unemployment

Citation

Egan M, Daly M, Delaney L, Boyce CJ & Wood AM (2017) Adolescent Conscientiousness Predicts Lower Lifetime Unemployment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102 (4), pp. 700-709. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000167

Abstract
Existing research on Big Five personality and unemployment has relied on personality measures elicited after the respondents had already spent years in the labor market, an experience which could change personality. We clarify the direction of influence by using the British Cohort Study (N = 4,206) to examine whether conscientiousness and other Big Five personality traits at age 16-17 predict unemployment over age 16-42. Our hypothesis that higher conscientiousness in adolescence would predict lower unemployment was supported. In analyses controlling for intelligence, gender, and parental socioeconomic status, the less conscientious (-1SD) had a predicted probability of unemployment twice as high (3.4% vs 1.7%) as the highly conscientious (+1SD), an effect size comparable to intelligence. Mediation analysis revealed that academic motivation and educational attainment explained only 8.9% of this association. Fostering conscientiousness in early-life may be an effective way to reduce unemployment throughout adulthood.

Keywords
conscientiousness; Big Five personality; unemployment; longitudinal data; cohort studies

Journal
Journal of Applied Psychology: Volume 102, Issue 4

People

Dr Christopher Boyce

Honorary Research Fellow, SMS Management and Support