THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY TRAITS OBSERVED EARLY AND LATER IN LIFE IS EXPLORED IN THIS PAPER. IN PARTICULAR, THE POSSIBILITY OF IDENTIFYING CHILDREN DURING NURSERY SCHOOL YEARS WHO LATER SHOW SIGNS OF MALADJUSTMENT IS EXPLORED. A SAMPLE OF 130 CHILDREN WHO ATTENDED A PRIVATE NURSERY SCHOOL BETWEEN 1945 AND 1950 WAS SELECTED. DATA WAS OBTAINED FROM NURSERY SCHOOL RECORDS AND THE CUMULATIVE RECORDS KEPT BY THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. BOTH SETS OF RECORDS WERE REVIEWED INDEPENDENTLY AND RATED BY THREE CLINICIANS. INTERRATER RELIABILITY RANGED FROM .73 TO .92 ON ALL BUT TWO CRITERIA. INFORMATION ON USAGE OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES WAS OBTAINED FROM SCHOOL PERSONNEL FILES, COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRIC CLINIC FILES, AND CASELOADS OF PRIVATE PSYCHIATRISTS. A GAMMA STATISTICAL METHOD OF ANALYSIS WAS UTILIZED. EARLY ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS TEND TO PERSIST IN LATER LIFE. THE MOST VALUABLE JUDGMENTS AT THE NURSERY SCHOOL LEVEL FOR PREDICTING LATER USE OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES WERE TEACHER'S EVALUATIONS OF PEER RELATIONSHIPS, BEHAVIORAL ECCENTRICITY, AND FAMILY RELATIONS. THIS DOCUMENT WAS PRESENTED AT THE AMERICAN ORTHOPSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION CONVENTION, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 1966. IT IS A REPRINT FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, VOLUME 37, NUMBER 4, JULY, 1967, PP. 725-731. (SK)