Abstract

• The main purpose of this study was to investigate personality traits and interpersonal communication skills of Grade 9 students in Kawlin Township. The quantitative research design and survey method were used in this study. A total of 1008 (male=504, female=504) Grade 9 students were randomly chosen from Kawlin Township. In this study, Big Five Inventory (BFI) developed by John and Srivastava (1999) and Interpersonal Communication Inventory (ICI) developed by Bienvenu (1974) to explore the personality traits and interpersonal communication skills of Grade 9 students were used. The reliability coefficients of BFI and ICI questionnaires were 0.811 and 0.737. After that, the data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, independent samples t test and ANOVA. Most of the students possess Conscientiousness and less of the students were Neuroticism. In examining the gender differences in percentage of participants’ personality traits, the percentage of males had higher than females in Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, and Mix Traits while the number of females was more than males in Extraversion. According to the descriptive statistics, the Grade 9 students from Kawlin Township were good in interpersonal communication skills. The result of independent samples t test showed that there was significant difference in interpersonal communication skills in which females were greater than males. By subject combination, there was significant difference in interpersonal communication skills. The Combination-1 students were stronger in interpersonal communication skills than the Combination-7 students. Furthermore, the result of ANOVA showed that there was significant difference in interpersonal communication skills in which the Grade 9 students from School-2 were the highest. According to mother’s job, there was significant difference in interpersonal communication skills in which farmers were greater than others. Then, the Grade 9 students from Kawlin Township had different interpersonal communication skills by personality traits.