 14. Personality in Young Adulthood  329
to the first job may be most clearly related 
to changes conscientiousness and openness 
to experience.
Summary: Life  Transitions and  Personality 
Change in  Young  Adulthood
The current state of research allows for ten -
tative conclusions concerning the impact life 
transitions on personality change in young 
adulthood. Only a handful of prospective 
studies have investigated the impact of life 
transitions on Big Five trait change in young 
adulthood, and most of these studies includ -
ed only few personality assessments. The 
transitions to the first romantic relationship 
(decreased neuroticism and increased extra -
version) and from school to college/work 
(increased agreeableness, conscientiousness, 
and openness, and decreased neuroticism) 
appear to positively influence young adults’ 
personality. Consistent with the observa -
tion that personality traits are most open 
to change in young adulthood (Bleidorn, 
2015; Lucas & Donnellan, 2011; Roberts & 
Nickel, Chapter 11, this volume), these life 
transitions seem to trigger personality trait 
changes in the direction of greater psycho -
logical maturity.
Life transitions in the love and work do -
mains may have a relatively strong influ -
ence on young adults’ personalities, because 
they are normative and relatively universal 
experiences in Western societies (Bleidorn 
et al., 2013; Rindfuss, 1991). In contrast 
to other non-  normative or less scripted life 
events (e.g., unemployment), graduation 
from school, the first job, and the first ro -
mantic partnership may be characterized 
by transparent behavioral scripts, relatively 
clear affective reactions, and cognitive de -
mands. For example, behavioral and cog -
nitive demands associated with graduation 
from school include being task- and goal- 
directed, organized, delaying gratification, 
and following prescribed norms. To the ex -
tent that these behaviors can be translated 
into trait terms (e.g., increases in conscien -
tiousness), attending and graduating from 
school should form a strong reward struc -
ture for personality trait change (Roberts & 
Wood, 2006).
Perhaps surprisingly, research on the tran -
sition to parenthood and personality change 
provided results that are more mixed. The transition to parenthood is one of the most 
salient normative life events in young adult -
hood that comes with highly scripted be -
havioral expectations. However, few studies 
have found strong evidence for an associa -
tion between this transition and matura -
tion in personality traits. The lack of clear 
evidence for or against the hypothesis that 
parenthood is associated with positive per -
sonality change may be partly due to limi -
tations of previous study designs. It might 
also be that parenthood is less scripted and 
normative than previously considered. For 
example, people may differ in both their 
parenting goals and values and their engage -
ment in the parent role. Moreover, the per -
sonality of the child might shape the degree 
to which the transition to parenthood leads 
to personality trait change in young adults 
(Jokela, 2010). In other words, the transi -
tion to parenthood may not produce norma -
tive change in personality, but it may lead 
to idiosyncratic trajectories that depend on 
the role-  specific experiences that new par -
ents encounter. A more general conclusion 
to emerge from this mixed pattern of results 
is that we need to gain a better understand -
ing of the processes of personality change to 
isolate the conditions under which major life 
transitions may or may not lead to change in 
personality traits.
Processes of Personality Change 
during Life Transitions
More research at the interface of life transi -
tions and personality trait change is needed 
to understand when and how life transitions 
may lead to change in personality traits 
(Bleidorn, Hill, et al., 2019). In particular, 
a better understanding of the preconditions, 
mediators, and moderators of personality 
trait change during major life transitions 
is required to predict when and how traits 
change in the context of transitional experi -
ences.
Preconditions of  Personality  Change
Hennecke et al. (2014) outlined a three-part 
framework to understand the preconditions 
of self-  regulated personality change in adult -
hood. The first precondition is that change 
must be a goal for the individual. Such a goal 