The relation between parental personality and observed parenting: The moderating role of preschoolers’ effortful control (original) (raw)
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2016
Understanding precursors to children's development of self-regulation is an important task for researchers wishing to promote many positive socioemotional outcomes in children. The current dissertation project focused on the role of child temperament, parenting, and interactive context on outcomes related to the development of approach-withdrawal tendencies and behavioral self-regulation and conscience. The overarching goal was to contribute to the developmental literature on how parenting interacts with child temperamental characteristics to predict outcomes relevant to child self-regulatory capabilities, specifically, by exploring various means through which contexts of measurement affect patterns of influence. These patterns were examined in a longitudinal sample of mothers and children who were observed when the child was 12 months, 18 months, and 4.5 years of age. The goal of the first study was to examine whether mothers' behavior when introducing infants to low-and high-intensity novel objects (12 months) predicted children's approachwithdrawal responses in two contexts in toddlerhood (18 months) based on their infants' early approach to novelty. For high-approach infants, maternal positive affect with a high-intensity novel toy predicted more toddler approach during a low-intensity novel situation. For lowapproach infants, maternal stimulation with a low-intensity novel toy predicted less toddler approach during a high-intensity novel situation. Maternal sensitivity did not relate to toddler approach-withdrawal for low-or high-approach infants. Thus, certain maternal behaviors may lead to stronger associations between earlier and later measures of approach-withdrawal, but the effects are tied to contexts of socialization and outcomes. The goal of the second study was to observe mothers' and children's positive affect, responsiveness, and control behavior in two contexts in toddlerhood (18 months), one involving
Parental personality, parenting and toddlers' externalising behaviours
European Journal of Personality, 2007
This study examined the mediating role of parenting on the relation between parental personality and toddlers' externalising behaviours. Participants were 112 boys and their parents. The data were analysed using multilevel modelling and moderated mediation analyses. Several associations were found between parental personality and parenting dimensions. Additionally, several parenting dimensions were associated with children's externalising behaviours. Emotional stability was the only parental personality trait that was related to children's externalising behaviours. The effect of maternal emotional stability on children's aggressive behaviours appeared to be mediated by maternal support. For fathers, there appeared to be a direct effect of emotional stability on children's aggressive behaviours. In addition, for both mothers and fathers, emotional stability was directly related to children's attention problems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The relations between parents’ Big Five personality factors and parenting: A meta-analytic review
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2009
To investigate the association between Big Five personality factors and three dimensions of parentingwarmth, behavioral control, and autonomy support-the authors conducted meta-analyses using 5,853 parent-child dyads that were included in 30 studies. Effect sizes were significant and robust across mother and father reports and across assessment methods of parenting (self-report versus observations) but were generally small in magnitude. Higher levels of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness and lower levels of Neuroticism were related to more warmth and behavioral control, whereas higher levels of Agreeableness and lower levels of Neuroticism were related to more autonomy support. Several factors moderated the relationship between specific personality dimensions and parenting: child and parental age, reliability of observational assessment of parenting behavior, and study design. Taken together, these results indicate that personality can be seen as an inner resource that affects parenting.
Child …, 2005
In a 3-wave longitudinal study (with assessments 2 years apart) involving 186 early adolescents (M ages of approximately 9.3, 11.4, and 13.4), the hypothesis that parental warmth/positive expressivity predicts children’s effortful control (EC) (a temperamental characteristic contributing to emotion regulation) 2 years later, which in turn predicts low levels of externalizing problems another 2 years later, was examined. The hypothesis that children’s EC predicts parenting over time was also examined. Parents were observed interacting with their children; parents and teachers reported children’s EC and externalizing problems; and children’s persistence was assessed behaviorally. Children’s EC mediated the relation between positive parenting and low levels of externalizing problems (whereas there was no evidence that children’s EC predicted parenting).
Parenting, Coparenting, and Effortful Control in Preschoolers
Journal of Family Psychology, 2008
This study investigated the relations among parenting, coparenting, and effortful control in preschoolers. The sample included 89 families with 2 parents and their firstborn 36-month-old children. Information was obtained by means of observation and parent-report questionnaires. In general, maternal parenting, paternal parenting, and coparenting were related to effortful control. Effortful control was more strongly predicted from parenting and coparenting when the same measurement method (observation or parent reports) was used. For both observation and parent reports, coparenting contributed to effortful control over and above maternal and paternal parenting. The results indicate the importance of adding indicators of triadic family processes to the study of parenting and young children's effortful control.
Since parental personality traits are assumed to play a role in parenting behaviors, the current study examined the relation between parental personality and parenting style among 688 Dutch parents of adolescents in the SMILE study. The study assessed Big Five personality traits and derived parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and uninvolved) from scores on the underlying dimensions of support and strict control. Regression analyses were used to determine which personality traits were associated with parenting dimensions and styles. As regards dimensions, the two aspects of personality reflecting interpersonal interactions (extraversion and agreeableness) were related to supportiveness. Emotional stability was associated with lower strict control. As regards parenting styles, extraverted, agreeable, and less emotionally stable individuals were most likely to be authoritative parents. Conscientiousness and openness did not relate to general parenting, but might be associated with more content-specific acts of parenting. Ó
Self‐control in early childhood: Individual differences in sensitivity to early parenting
Journal of Personality, 2020
Objective: This study extends existing research on the role of infant temperament as a moderator of the association between the quality of parent-child relationships and children's self-control during the pre-school years. In particular, we focus on the potential moderating role of a dimension of early infant temperament known as behavioural inhibition. Assumptions formulated within the diathesis-stress, the vantage-sensitivity and the differential susceptibility models of individual differences in environmental sensitivity are tested. Method: Data are from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 18,552 infants born in the UK during 2000/01. Results: The results show that the quality of both mother-child and father-child relationships are associated with children's development of self-control in early childhood. Additionally, individual differences in infant temperament moderate the association between mother-child conflict and children's development of self-control. Specifically, high behavioural inhibition shows a vantagesensitivity pattern for mother-child conflict. Conclusion: Aspects of both mothers' and fathers' relationships with their young children independently predict variations in selfcontrol. This study also provides an initial indication that behavioural inhibition, a temperamental trait best-known for being a risk factor for anxiety, may provide small benefits in relation to young children's self-control development.