| Description |
Previous investigations of infants and children describing the characteristic of culturally distinct groups of people such as the Dine', or Navajo people, suggest definite differences which have been associated with genetic explanations, environmental impoverishment, and culture specific child rearing practices. The goals of this investigation are to address three research questions. These are: 1) What are the personality traits characteristics of Dine', or Navajo, children between the ages of 8 and 12 years who are living in an urbanized area? 2) How does the Dine' sample of 40 children compare with the normative sample (N=2834) of Porter and Cattell which provide the norms used to base interpretations of the trait scores throughout the nation? 3) How does the Dine', or Navajo, sample compare with the Worrell sample of 348 children 8 to 12 years of age also living in the greater Salt Lake Valley? The Navajo sample included 40 children whose families were intact and had moved from a rural to an urban area. Seventy-five percent of the children had lived in an urban area for three years or less. The Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ) was used to measure the subjects' personality traits. The CPQ was developed by Cattell and Porter and includes substantial reliability and validity data to support the instrument's validity and consistency in measuring enduring personality traits. When compared with the Porter-Catell normative sample (N=2834), several primary source traits appear to be characteristic of the Navajo children no living in an urban area. These findings are demonstrated in the raw scores reported for Factors B, C, D, G, H, J, N, and Q3. The regional raw score norms (N=348) provided by Worrell were also compared to the raw scores of the Navajo children with markedly different results. Compared with other children in the area, the Navajo children showed personality differences only in the areas measured by Factors B, C, G, and H. These traits include bright, emotionally stable and conscientious. The Navajo sample is clearly more like other children living in the area than the children included in the Porter-Cattell normative sample. The characteristic differences of the Navajo children based on comparison with the other two samples include four basic personality traits. In sum, the Navajo, or Dine', children's scores suggest that they are: 1) brighter and more capable of abstract thinking than the other children; 2) less conscientious and persevering in adhering to social rules, or in other words, they were more concerned about expedience than being rule-bound than the other children; 3) less venturesome, which suggests shyness, personal restraint, and threat sensitivity; and 4) they demonstrated less emotional stability and calmness than the other children. Some possible explantions or these findings are discussed. |
