How personality shapes perceptions of adulthood

Adulthood is often inferred from age and the attainment of milestones such as marriage, parenthood, and career. Yet, personality traits likely influence whether we feel like adults and how we evaluate adulthood. Here we tested associations between personality and perceptions of adulthood in a UK sample (N = 714, age 18–77 years, M _{Ag e} = 39.2). Regression analyses indicated that personality independently explained an incremental 15% of variance in subjective adult status, and an additional 27% of variance in attitudes towards adulthood, after age, gender, SES, and the attainment of the traditional adult social roles of marriage, parenthood, and career were accounted for. Regression results also illustrated the presence of individual differences in perceived importance of markers of adulthood, with personality explaining between 5–11% of unique variance across the sample. Traditional markers of adulthood including marriage, parenthood, and career were predicted by high Neuroticism and low Openness, whereas psychosocial markers of adulthood such as ‘taking responsibility for the consequences of my actions’ were predicted by high Openness. This study demonstrates that personality traits shape perceptions of adulthood and calls for the consideration of personality and other individual differences in future studies exploring associations between perceptions of adulthood and life outcomes.