SODANO AND TRACEY DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAIS Interpersonal Traits in Childhood: Development of the Child and Adolescent Interpersonal Survey Sandro M. Sodano and Terence J. G. Tracey Department of Counseling and Counseling Psychology Arizona State University The Child and Adolescent Interpersonal Survey (CAIS) consists of interpersonal trait descrip- tions that were generated to represent the constructs of the Interpersonal Circumplex model uti- lizing language accessible to children in a brief self-report format. Scale development entailed ex- amining the structure at the item and scale levels with a sample of children (fourth and sixth graders) and at the scale level with college students. Internal consistency estimates for the major- ity of the CAIS scales were adequate given the brevity of the scales. The fits to the circular order model for the CAIS were very well supported across the child and adult samples, with no signifi- cant differences in the fit of the model across these samples. Generally strong associations were found between corresponding scales of the CAIS and the Interpersonal Adjective Scales in a col- lege sample, and there were many structural similarities between these measures. For the child sample, the CAIS scales of Gregarious–Extraverted and Warm–Agreeable related strongly to corresponding Five-factor scales, and remaining scales related minimally to moderately. Research on the personality traits of children has followed from that of adults and has gained increasing attention, par- ticularly with respect to the Five-factor model of personality (FFM) and, more recently, with the Interpersonal Circumplex Model (IPC). The FFM is a well-researched model of personality traits in adults where five factors, gener- ally known as Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientious- ness, Openness, and Neuroticism, are said to be a compre- hensive description of personality (McCrae & Costa, 1989). Personality trait researchers utilize the psycholexical ap- proach (e.g., Goldberg, 1981, 1992) based on single-word trait descriptors (the Big Five) or the factorial approach (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1992) based on sentences from personality questionnaires (the FFM). Both approaches utilize self- or other perspectives in ratings. Regardless of the route taken to measure the five factors (i.e., adjectives or statements, by self or other ratings), a simple structure emerges, where items load uniquely on only one factor (McCrae & Costa, 1989). The study of personality traits also has occurred within the interpersonal domain and can address general interpersonal behaviors of individuals. The predominant model for inter- personal traits has been Leary’s (1957) Interpersonal Circle, based on the theoretical work of Sullivan (1953). This ap- proach has evolved into the IPC (Wiggins, 1979, 1982, 1995) and consists of a circular arrangement of traits on a plane de- fined by the bipolar dimensions of Dominance and Nurturance. The interpersonal variables that fall between these axes are thought of as blends of Dominance and Nurturance (Wiggins, 1995). This model is depicted in Fig- ure 1. The correlations among these interpersonal variables are represented as a circumplex (Guttman, 1954). The IPC has a rich history of tying together interpersonal theory and research with the properties of circles as well as having appli- cations to clinical contexts (e.g., Wiggins, 1982; Wiggins, JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, 87(3), 317–329 Copyright © 2006, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. FIGURE 1 The Interpersonal Circumplex Model as described by Wiggins (1995).