Table 1.
Mean differences in personality (Big Five) and cognitive ability (fluid intelligence) related to pSES.
| Total | Differences related to parental socioeconomic status (pSES, as measured by HISEI) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (N = 9,300) | Very low 1st quartile | Rather low 2nd quartile | Rather high 3rd quartile | Very high 4th quartile | 4th quartile vs. 1st quartile | Linear correlation with pSES | |||
| Range | M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | M (SD) | η2 | Cohen's d | r | |
| Personality | |||||||||
| Conscientiousness | 1–5 | 3.17 (0.88) | 3.23 (0.86) | 3.22 (0.87) | 3.18 (0.88) | 3.06 (0.88) | 0.006 | −0.20 | −0.07 |
| Openness | 1–5 | 3.50 (0.94) | 3.40 (0.90) | 3.46 (0.94) | 3.53 (0.97) | 3.59 (0.95) | 0.006 | 0.20 | 0.09 |
| Emotional Stability | 1–5 | 3.23 (0.86) | 3.16 (0.85) | 3.23 (0.87) | 3.23 (0.84) | 3.29 (0.87) | 0.003 | 0.15 | 0.06 |
| Extraversion | 1–5 | 3.46 (0.88) | 3.35 (0.89) | 3.47 (0.88) | 3.46 (0.88) | 3.53 (0.89) | 0.005 | 0.20 | 0.07 |
| Agreeableness | 1–5 | 3.46 (0.66) | 3.47 (0.65) | 3.49 (0.67) | 3.47 (0.67) | 3.42 (0.65) | 0.001 | −0.08 | −0.04 |
| Cognitive ability | |||||||||
| Fluid intelligence | 0–12 | 8.84 (2.37) | 8.19 (2.56) | 8.65 (2.40) | 8.98 (2.31) | 9.43 (2.07) | 0.037 | 0.54 | 0.21 |
N = 9,300. HISEI: Highest International Socio-Economic Index of occupational status. The table shows the manifest and unweighted sum score for fluid intelligence across all 12 binary matrices and mean scores for the Big Five personality traits. All linear correlations with pSES (column r) are statistically significant at p < 0.01. Likewise, all mean differences (4th quartile vs. 1st quartile) are statistically significant at p < 0.01.