Being a successful adolescent at school and with peers. The discriminative power of a typological approach

This study aims to explore the utility of the resilient, over-controlled, and under-controlled personality prototypes in discriminating adolescents with respect to their academic and social functioning and success. One-hundred and twelve male and 95 female Italian adolescents (mean age = 17 years old) participated in the study and filled out a number of self-report questionnaires aimed at assessing the Big Five personality traits, academic and social functioning indicators, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Prototype membership, corresponding to the resilient, over-controlled and under-controlled types, was derived from cluster analysis of the Big Five self-ratings. The three prototypes clearly differed in terms of their academic and interpersonal functioning and problem behavior. Resilient adolescents showed higher academic success and better relationships with peers; whereas under-controllers and over-controllers both reported more internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as having more deviant friends who both are drug addicts and steal.