Personality Profiles of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cadets Starting the Cadet Training Program

Personalities of those entering the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cadet Training Program (CTP) are unknown and may differ to the general public. The current study provides the first known detailed analyses of personality trait, sociodemographic, and gender differences among RCMP cadets. The current study draws data from the RCMP Longitudinal PTSD Study (www.rcmpstudy.ca). Participating RCMP cadets (n = 772) starting the CTP completed a web-based questionnaire which included sociodemographic questions and the six-factor HEXACO personality inventory. Cadet women reported significantly higher scores on the HEXACO factors of Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, and Conscientiousness and lower scores on Agreeableness and Openness to Experience than cadet men. Older cadets (+ 40 years old) and cadets with more education (university degree or higher) also scored significantly higher on all factor-level scales, except for Extraversion. Relative to the general population, participating cadets reported significantly higher levels of Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and lower levels of Emotionality and Openness to Experience. Cadets also reported significantly higher scores on the HEXACO facet-level scales of Fairness and lower scores on Fearfulness and Unconventionality. The current results highlight potentially important HEXACO factor-level and facet-level differences between cadet men and women and between the general population and RCMP cadets.