Brno Longitudinal Study of Life-Span Human Development

The History

The Brno longitudinal research on child development (1961-1980) was part of an international study coordinated by the Centre International d'Enfance, based in Paris since 1952 under the auspices of UNICEF. The project investigated pediatric, anthropological, psychological and social aspects of development in childhood and adolescence. Four longitudinal studies of children in the former Czechoslovakia - in Prague, Brno, Bratislava and Košice - followed the CIE methodology.

The longitudinal research in Brno was entitled "Psychological development of school-age children from different social environments" and was carried out as a state task (No. VII-3-8/1) by the Institute of Psychology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in the years 1961 - 1980. The sociological and medical part was provided by the Department of Social Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of J. E. Purkyně University (now Masaryk University) and the Pediatric Research Institute in Brno.

The longitudinal study included 557 children born in Brno between 1961 and 1964. Boys and girls were equally represented in the original sample (50.1% girls) and the sample was designed to represent the general population. Psychological investigations were conducted up to the age of 18 years, and various individual characteristics including personality traits, intelligence, cognitive processes, and self-concept were monitored.

The parents were contacted before the child was born. The first examination was performed at 3 months of age, and subsequent examinations were performed at ages 9, 12, 18, 24, 30, and 36 months, with examinations occurring after 1 year from 4 to 18 years. Testing always took place on the day of the child's birth or at the earliest possible date. Less than 350 of the original 557 people were tested at age 16 due to the transition of children from primary to secondary school. By the age of 18, only about 150 people had been examined. The loss of people between 16 and 18 years was due to the cessation of the original project - before 1989, Czechoslovakia was a socialist state and its economy was centrally controlled by five-year economic plans. The project was administratively terminated with the sixth Five-Year Plan (1976-1980). Those born earlier were still screened at 18, while those born later were not.

Between 2001 and 2005, we approached part of the original cohort (332 individuals for whom we knew the addresses) with a request to collaborate on follow-up research on human lifespan development. 142 persons (i.e. 43% of those approached) responded to our written request: 138 persons agreed to participate (54 men and 84 women), 3 women and 1 man explicitly declined to participate. Finally, 83 persons (35 men and 48 women) attended the examination.

When the sample was activated in adulthood, the self-selection effect was observed. Analysis of differences between those agreeing to cooperate and the other respondents showed no differences in psychological characteristics between the two groups. The only difference found was in the time spent participating in the original longitudinal research - people agreeing to participate spent more time in the original research; this may have resulted in higher motivation to continue into adulthood. However, we found differences in psychological variables between people who only consented to participate and people who actually participated in the research - people who actually visited the institute were found to have slightly higher levels of intelligence in childhood and adolescence than people who did not attend the examination despite their initial consent. This finding corresponds with the fact that in our sample there is a higher proportion of people with university education (45%) than is typical for this age group in the general population of the Czech Republic, where university graduates represent only 14% of the population (Czech Statistical Office, 2010).

The Present

The newly established longitudinal study of development in adulthood has the following scientific objectives. It examines personality stability and change during middle and late adulthood; personality traits, self-concept variables, and values are examined. It also addresses successful development, both adaptive psychological functioning (well-being) and adaptive social functioning (career stability). It explores the predictive value of data from childhood and adolescence for predicting psychological characteristics in adulthood. It uses archival data from childhood and adolescence for reanalysis using modern statistical methods. Topics appropriate to the age of the study participants are included on an ongoing basis - in the next planned measurement (2026), the main topic will be the transition to retirement.

Measurements have been carried out every five years since 2001, with five measurements so far. The first stage of the BLS focused on possibilities of predicting psychological variables in adulthood based on personality and behavioral characteristics in childhood and adolescence and on the subjective perception of personal change (Blatný et al. 2004; Blatný & Osecká, 2005). The research has been supplemented by original data re-analyses using modern statistical methods (Blatný & Urbánek, 2004).

The second stage focused on the issues of integrated life experience, sense of personal coherence and experienced meaningfulness in life (Blatný et al., 2009; Blatný et al., 2010), and continued the research on longitudinal stability of personality and the predictive value of information relating to childhood and adolescence (Blatný et al., 2007; Blatný et al., 2008).

The third stage was devoted to the antecedents of successful development studied in the framework of current theories of life-span development. We focused on both psychological adaptive functioning (well-being) and social adaptive functioning (carrier stability) and their personality predictors (Blatný et al., 2015; Millová et al., 2015).

In the fourth stage, we focused on personality predictors of generativity (Blatný et al., 2019). In the fifth and final stage so far, which took place during the covid pandemic only by correspondence, we only replicated methods for measuring personality traits and characteristic adaptations (self-concept variables, values) (Blatný et al., 2022).

The BLS's main findings to date are as follows.

1. Qualitative analysis of accounts of subjectively perceived personality change over the life course suggests that people develop and change and are aware of these changes and developments (Blatný & Osecká, 2005). At the same time, they see continuity in their life stories. Most respondents perceive their own changes as normative, i.e. corresponding to their age and life trajectory. Changes that deviate from the normative framework are associated with a non-normative life course. The study also shows that the socially shaped part of personality is subject to change to a much greater extent than the personality trait domain.
2. We found a link between child temperament in toddlerhood (between 1 and 3 years) and personality characteristics in middle adulthood (40 years). Childhood disinhibition is related in adulthood to the personality traits of extraversion in the five-factor model of personality and harm avoidance in the Clonninger model of temperament and character and to generalized self-efficacy (Blatný et al., 2007; Blatný et al., 2008).
3. Personality characteristics from childhood and adolescence also predict successful development in middle adulthood (40 and 50 years) defined as adaptive psychological functioning (well-being variables) and adaptive social functioning (career stability). Childhood disinhibition and extraversion measured at age 16 years predict life satisfaction and meaningfulness in life and are also related to later career stability - increasing the likelihood of having a stable and changeable career path versus an unstable career path (Blatný et al., 2010; Blatný et al., 2015). Extraversion in adolescence also predicts generativity at age 55 years (Blatný et al., 2019).
4. Personality traits within the five-factor model of personality, self-concept variables (self-esteem, self-efficacy) and values retain high stability over time (repeated measurements at age 40, 50 and 60 years) (Blatný et al., 2022).

The Future

Given the age of the respondents (65 years), the main theme of the next stage of BLS is the transition from middle to late adulthood. In addition to the long-term follow-up of personality traits and characteristic adaptations, we will focus on three areas. In the first sub-study, we will continue to examine generativity, focusing on its development between middle and late adulthood and its relations to personality traits. In the second sub-study, we will examine predictors of retirement concepts. We will use data collected from the age of forty of our respondents, which include personality, well-being, generativity, and objective life history events. The third sub-study will be devoted to retrospective research on midlife crisis. Based on interviews, we will determine whether the respondents experienced the crisis, what the main symptoms were, and in retrospect we are also able to determine whether and how the respondents managed to overcome the crisis.

References

Blatný, M., Jelínek, M., & Osecká, T. (2004). Stability of personality between adolescence and middle adulthood: Personality traits and self-concept. In I. Ruisel, D. Lupták, M. Falat (Eds.), Social processes and personality 2004: Conference proceedings (CD-ROM). Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV. (In Czech)

Blatný, M., Jelínek, M., & Osecká, T. (2007), Assertive toddler, self-efficacious adult: Child temperament predicts personality over 40 years. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 2127-2136. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2007.06.024

Blatný, M., Jelínek, M., & Osecká, T. (2022). Personality stability in middle adulthood: Personality traits, self-concept and values. Conference presentation, Social Processes and Personality, 5 - 7 September 2022, Stará Lesná, Slovakia.

Blatný, M., Jelínek, M., Osecká, T., & Preiss, M. (2008). The continuity of childhood temperament and personality traits in adulthood in the context of the Cloninger model of personality: Results from Brno Longitudinal Study on Life-Span Human Development. Psychologica, 34, 9-26. (In Czech)

Blatný, M., Millová, K., Jelínek, M., & Osecká, T. (2010). Meaningfulness in life: Personality correlates and antecedents. Československá psychologie, 54, 225-234. (In Czech).

Blatný, M., Millová, K., Jelínek, M., & Osecká, T. (2015). Personality predictors of successful development: Toddler temperament and adolescent personality traits predict well-being and career stability in middle adulthood. PLoS One, 10, e0126032. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126032

Blatný, M., Millová, K., Jelínek, M., & Romaňáková, M. (2019). Personality predictors of midlife generativity: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adult Development, 26, 219-231. DOI: 10.1007/s10804-018-9323-z

Blatný, M., & Osecká, T. (2005). Subjective perception of personal change. In N. Kelly, C. Horrocks, K. Milnes, B. Roberts, D. Robinson (Eds.), Narrative, Memory, and Everyday Life (pp. 59-67). Huddersfield: University of Huddersfield Press.

Blatný, M., & Urbánek, T. (2004). Personality stability and change in adolescence: Analysis on the level of personality types. Československá psychologie, 48, 289-297. (In Czech)

Blatný, M., Zábrodská, K., & Jelínek, M. (2009). Actors of life. In L. Golecká, J. Gurňáková, I. Ruisel (Eds), Social processes and personality 2008: Conference proceedings (674-681). Bratislava: Ústav experimentálnej psychológie SAV. (In Czech)

Millová, K., & Blatný, M. (2016). Generativity in contemporary empirical research. Ceskoslovenska Psychologie, 60, 609-621. (In Czech)

Millová, K., Blatný, M., & Jelínek, M. (2015). Factors of positive social functioning in the context of transforming societies: Results of the Brno Longitudinal Study on Life-Span Human Development. Československá psychologie, 59, 47-55, Supplement.

Sobotková, V., Blatný, M., & Jelínek, M. (2012). Personality stability between adolescence and mid-adulthood: Personality traits and self-concept. Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Developmental Psychology ECDP (pp. 515-520). Bologna, Medimond, 2012.