Positive Youth Development and the Big Five Personality Traits in Youth from Belize

Relevant work has shown significant relations between the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and the Five Cs of positive youth development (PYD) (competence, confidence, character, connection, and caring). For example, conscientiousness has been positively related to competence (e.g., grades, test scores, decision making, and vocational competence). However, direct relations between the Big Five and the Five Cs at the construct level have not been explored in any population. In the present chapter, we examined the relations between the Big Five and the Five Cs of PYD through a canonical correlation in Belize youth (N = 3.770, M age = 14.11, SD = 1.46). The findings suggest that the Five Cs and the Big Five are theoretically different and assess unrelated latent constructs. This chapter further indicates that striving to promote the Five Cs in youth is an impactful endeavor that is not attempting to change a stable trait, but a malleable quality of person-context relations that can positively alter youth development. A better understanding of the Five Cs in relation to the Big Five provides a more comprehensive insight into the effects of PYD programs implemented in international contexts.