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Ego Control, Ego Resiliency, and the Five-Factor Model

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Journal of Abnormal Psychology1997, Vol. 106, No. 3, 404-415Copyright 1997 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.0021-843X/97/S3.00Ego Control, Ego Resiliency, and the Five-Factor Modelas Predictors of Behavioral and Emotional Problemsin Clinic-Referred Children and AdolescentsStanley J. Huey, Jr., and John R. WeiszUniversity of California, Los AngelesThe relations of Ego control (EC), Ego resiliency (ER), and the Five-Factor Model of Personality(FFM) with behavioral and emotional problems were explored among 116 clinic-referred children.Within the EC-ER model, Ego undercontrol was most important in predicting externalizing problems,and both Ego brittleness (the relative absence of ER) and Ego undercontrol made equal contributionsto predicting internalizing problems. Within the FFM, Extraversion and Agreeableness were indepen-dent predictors of externalizing problems, whereas only Neuroticism predicted internalizing problems.When the EC-ER model was tested against the FFM, the latter model appeared to outperform theformer in predicting externalizing but not internalizing problems; when clinical syndrome groupswere examined, dimensions from both personality models were differentially salient for childrenwith primary internalizing, externalizing, or comorbid problems.A growing body of work has emerged linking personalityattributes to patterns of psychopathology in children (e.g., All-sopp & Feldman, 1976; Eysenck, 1981; Furnham & Thompson,1991; John, Caspi, Robins, Moffitt, & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1994;Lane, 1987; Moffitt, 1993). However, two prominent modelsof personality with hypothesized relations to behavioral andemotional problems in children, the Ego-control-Ego-resiliencymodel (J. H. Block & Block, 1980) and the Five-Factor Modelof Personality (FFM; Robins, John, & Caspi, 1994), have re-ceived little attention from clinical researchers and have rarelybeen studied in clinical samples. Considering the nominal andconceptual similarities between these personality dimensionsand conventional domains of child psychopathology (see be-low), this seems to be a significant oversight.Ego-Control/Ego-Resiliency ModelThe constructs of Ego control and Ego resiliency derive fromefforts to conceptualize the otherwise vague notion of the ego,Stanley J. Huey, Jr., and John R. Weisz, Psychology Department,University of California, Los Angeles.The research reported in this article was completed in partial fulfill-ment of a master's degree in psychology by Stanley J. Huey, Jr. Theresearch project was supported by National Institute of Mental Health(NIMH) Research Grant R01 MH 49522 and by Research ScientistAward K05 MH01161 from NIMH. We thank Jack Block for his in-sightful comments and for making available to us the criterion Q-sortfor ego undercontrol and ego resiliency. We also thank Douglas Grangerfor his assistance in organizing and analyzing these data and Tom Wick-ens for statistical assistance. Finally, we would like to thank the reviewersof the original manuscript for encouraging us to incorporate the Five-Factor model.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to StanleyJ. Huey, Jr., Psychology Department, 1282A Franz Hall, University ofCalifornia, Box 951563 Los Angeles, California 90095-1563. Electronicmail may be sent via Internet to [email protected] as modulating the desires of the individual to adapt toexternal restrictions and constraints (J. Block, 1950; J. H. Block,1951; J. Block & Kremen, 1996; J. H. Block, 1951; J. H.Block & Block, 1980). Whereas Ego control refers to the degreeto which individuals express their impulses, Ego resiliency de-scribes the internal personality structures that function to modu-late these impulses adaptively (J. H. Block & Kremen, 1996;J. H. Block & Block, 1980). At one end of the Ego-controlcontinuum lie Ego-undercontrolled individuals, described asspontaneous, emotionally expressive, and focused on the imme-diate gratification of desires. At the other extreme are Ego-overcontrolled individuals, who are relatively constrained andinhibited and who tend toward minimal expression of their im-pulses and emotions. Research suggests that children describedas Ego undercontrolled tend to exhibit patterns of delinquentbehavior (White et al., 1994), demonstrate deficits in delayedgratification (Funder & Block, 1989; Funder, Block, & Block,1983), and engage in frequent hard drug use in adolescence (J.Block, Block, & Keyes, 1988; Shedler & Block, 1990). How-ever, others report that Ego-undercontrolled boys tend to bejudged as socially competent by objective observers (Vaughn &Martino, 1988; Waters, Garber, Gornal, & Vaughn, 1983). Egoovercontrol, at the opposite end of the spectrum, is associatedwith depressive symptoms in adolescence (J. Block & Gjerde,1990).At the high end of the Ego-resiliency continuum lies theEgo-resilient individual who is resourceful in adapting to novelsituations; at the opposite end is the Ego-brittle individual whoexhibits little adaptive flexibility when encountering novel orstressful situations (J. H. Block & Block, 1980). Research haslinked childhood Ego resiliency to secure attachment in infancy(Arend, Gove, & Sroufe, 1979), empathic behavior of childrentoward peers (Strayer & Roberts, 1989), preschool problem-solving ability (Arend, Gove, & Sroufe, 1979), and delay ofgratification behavior in young children and adolescents(Funder & Block, 1989; Mischel, Shoda, & Peake, 1988). Other404EGO CONTROL-EGO RESILIENCY AND FIVE-FACTOR MODEL405studies have linked Ego brittleness to hard drug use (J. Block etal., 1988) and depressive symptoms in adolescence (J. Block &Gjerde, 1990, J. Block, Gjerde, & Block, 1991).A notably distinct but related area of research has dealt withthe classification of psychopathology in children and adoles-cents. Of particular interest here is the work of Achenbach andcolleagues (e.g., Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1991) whose princi-pal components analyses of the Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL) point to two broad-band factors, each encompassingmultiple narrow-band syndromes. An externalizing factor in-cludes aggression, hyperactivity, and related problems of actingout, whereas an internalizing factor includes such problems asanxiety, depression, and social withdrawal. A nominal overlapbetween Ego control and the broadband behavior dimensions isapparent in the use of the terms undercontrol and overcontrolby some researchers to describe externalizing and internalizingbehavior problems,


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