Childhood correlates of adult ego development

The present study examined family socioeconomic indicators, parent child-rearing variables, and childhood and adolescent behaviors, which were hypothesized to predict adult ego development. The subjects were 206 females and 192 males, ages 30-31, who began participating in a longitudinal study at age 8. At that time, interviews with their parents yielded data on family background variables and child-rearing practices. Peer-nominations and other testing procedures with the children yielded data on the children's cognitive and behavioral styles at ages 8 and 19. At age 30, the subjects completed the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development. Results confirmed the hypotheses that child-rearing styles characterized by acceptance, a nonauthoritarian approach to punishment, and identification of the child with the parent related to higher levels of adult ego development 22 years later. These relations obtained more strongly for females than for males. In addition, childhood and adolescent indicators of impulse control and cognitive development (nonaggression, prosocial behavior, and intelligence) were associated with higher levels of adult ego development. Finally, hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that the development of aggression was linked to adult ego level attainment in males, while the development of prosocial behavior was related to adult ego development in females.