Psychoticism and attitude toward authority among pre-adolescent boys

Studies of the relationship between attitudes to authority and factors assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) among young people have hitherto been examined only with adolescent subjects, for whom it has been suggested that rebellion against parental and societal authority occurs as a response to developmental factors not present among younger children. It was nevertheless predicted on the basis of Eysenckian theory that personality correlates would be found among pre-adolescent children similar to those reported for older children; in particular, attitude to institutional authority would be negatively correlated with psychoticism. Male primary school children (N = 90) with a mean age of 11 years completed the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and also a reliable measure of attitude to authority. As predicted, a significant negative correlation (partial r = -0.57, after controlling for age and social desirability) was found between the attitude to authority measure and Psychoticism. There were no significant relationships with either Extraversion or Neuroticism.