Stability and change of values during the formative years: Latent state-trait analyses of adolescents in a seven-wave...

Many researchers agree that a person's values are formed during the first two decades of one's life span. But little is known about the exact formation process and the typical development of values during youth. In this article, we investigate the question of intra-individual stability and changes in values during the so-called formative years.

We used the dataset of a German panel study that took place in seven waves, from 2002 to 2008 (t₁ -t₇ ), which contained responses obtained from 2,957 boys and girls ages 13-19. The interviews were repeated yearly and were held mainly in classrooms. An analysis of stability and change over the observed time period was done using the framework of latent state-trait theory.

The results showed a stable three-dimensional value structure, with strong growth in value stability that decreased slightly at the end of the adolescent period. The development of stability among youth seems to be dependent on the values themselves.

These findings are consistent with the aging-stability hypothesis-that is, values become more and more stable parts of an individual's personality during the formative years. Moreover, our results would seem to substantiate hypotheses that assume value-specific courses of development and recurring periods of stability and change later in the life cycle.