Abstract: Gender difference has been studied extensively in the field of personality. Many studies have demonstrated significant gender difference in personality traits (e.g., self-esteem, extraversion) among people from different age groups and cultural contexts. Although the stabilities and changes of personality structure from adolescence to adulthood have also been investigated, few studies have explored gender difference in personality traits from a developmental perspective.
This paper compared gender difference in the Cross-cultural (Chinese) Personality Assessment Inventory -- Adolescent Version (CPAI-A) among three age groups of secondary school students in Hong Kong. The CPAI-A was based on the adult version of the CPAI-2 which was developed using a combined emic-etic approach. The participants were 2,506 (1135 males, 1371 females) Hong Kong secondary school students aged 12 to 18 (M=15.25, SD=1.72) drawn from a representative sample of secondary schools. The participants were divided into three age groups which corresponded to the phases of the secondary school system in Hong Kong: 12-14 years, 15-16 years, and 17-18 years. We used MANOVA to examine the overall group differences, followed by further univariate analysis to examine the specific gender difference in personality traits among three age groups.
The results indicated that gender was a key factor that contributed to group difference in personality traits among secondary school students in Hong Kong. Three typical developmental features of gender difference in personality traits were found: (1) There were consistent gender differences in some general and clinical personality traits across the three groups. For example, male students scored significantly higher on the scales of Enterprise, Optimism vs. Pessimism, Ah-Q Mentality, and Antisocial Behavior than did their females counterparts. (2) An increasing or decreasing trend was observed for some general and clinical personality traits. For instance, gender differences in Leadership, Ren Qing, and Alienation increased with age, but those in Discipline and Family Orientation, and Depression decreased from lower age group to higher group. (3) Changing patterns of gender differences were observed in some general personality traits. For example, a “V” curve of gender difference in Novelty and Graciousness vs. Meanness was found with significant gender difference observed in the 12-14 age group and again in the 17-18 age group, but insignificant in the middle age group (15-16 years).
Given the continuity between the CPAI-2 and the CAPI-A which was developed based on the CPAI-2 (adult version), patterns of gender difference in personality found in the CPAI-A were also compared with those found in adults from the CPAI-2 standardization study. The stabilities and changes in the development of gender difference across different age groups of secondary school students and from adolescence to adulthood were discussed. The study highlighted the development of gender difference as one of the important aspects in personality development

Key words: personality traits, gender difference, development, CPAI-A, Hong Kong secondary school students