Predictors of Initial Status and Change in Self-Control During the College Transition.

Although self-control tends to increase through late adolescence, there are individual differences in patterns of growth. Latent growth modeling was used to investigate change in self-control across students' first year of college ( N = 569, M age = 18.03; 70.3% female; 89.6% White), and whether attachment to parents predicted this change when controlling for personality and demographic variables. Self-control decreased linearly across five assessments, with significant heterogeneity in intercepts and slopes. Personality was associated with initial self-control, and greater avoidant attachment to mothers and openness to experience predicted greater declines. Overall, self-control changes across late adolescence, and attachment and personality explain individual differences in that change, indicating potential intervention targets during emerging adulthood.