Challenging circumstances moderate the links between mothers' personality traits and their parenting in low-income families with young children.

Abstract

The need for research on potential moderators of personality–parenting links has been repeatedly emphasized, yet few studies have examined how varying stressful or challenging circumstances may influence such links. We studied 186 diverse, low-income mother–toddler dyads. Mothers described themselves in terms of Big Five traits, were observed in lengthy interactions with their children, and provided parenting reports. Ecological adversity, assessed as a cumulative index of known risk factors, and the child’s difficulty observed as negative affect and defiance in interactions with mothers were posited as sources of parenting challenge. Mothers high in Neuroticism reported more power assertion. Some personality–parenting relations emerged only under challenging conditions. For mothers raising difficult children, higher Extraversion was linked to increased observed power assertion, but higher Conscientiousness was linked to decreased reported power assertion. There were no such relations for mothers of easy children. By contrast, some relations emerged only in the absence of challenge. Agreeableness was associated with more positive parenting for mothers who lived under conditions of low ecological adversity, and with less reported power for those who had easy children, and Openness was linked to more positive parenting for mothers of easy children. Those traits were unrelated to parenting under challenging conditions.

Interactive Effects of Parental Personality and Child Temperament with Parenting and Family Cohesion

“…Openness predicted more positive support for mothers with high (but not for low) effortful control children, replicating a similar finding reported by Kochanska et al (2012). Perhaps, well-regulated children allowed mothers high on Openness the opportunities to explore new experiences aimed at enriching the parent-child relationship.…”

“…Parents high on Extraversion tend to use power-assertive behavior when their children are challenging (Clark et al, 2000;Karreman et al, 2008;Kochanska et al, 2012). Parents high on Agreeableness, however, are less inclined to use coercive parenting even when faced with emotionally dsyregulated children (Coplan et al, 2009;Kochanska et al, 2012). These interaction effects underscore the complex multiplicative effects of parental personality and child temperament characteristics on parenting behavior (Belsky, 1984).…”

“…Parents high on Neuroticism often react adversely to temperamentally difficult children and resort to less adaptive forms of parenting, such as harsh punishment (Latzman et al, 2009;Prinzie et al, 2012). Parents high on Extraversion tend to use power-assertive behavior when their children are challenging (Clark et al, 2000;Karreman et al, 2008;Kochanska et al, 2012). Parents high on Agreeableness, however, are less inclined to use coercive parenting even when faced with emotionally dsyregulated children (Coplan et al, 2009;Kochanska et al, 2012).…”

“…Most previous studies have focused on children in early childhood (Clark et al, 2000;Karreman et al, 2008;Kochanska et al, 2012;Koenig et al, 2010) and adolescents (Latzman et al, 2009;Prinzie et al, 2012) in Western societies. A gap in this literature was addressed by examining the hypotheses in a sample of Singaporean parents of children in their middle childhood years of seven years.…”

“…Recent work in this area has been guided by Belsky's (1984, Belsky & Jaffee, 2006 process model of parenting, which postulated that parenting is multiply influenced by parental personality, child characteristics, and contextual sources of stress and support (e.g., . Increasing emphasis has been given to the interactive effects between parental personality and child temperament on parenting behavior (e.g., Karreman, van Tuijl, van Aken, & Deković, 2008;Kochanska, Kim, & Koenig-Nordling, 2012;Koenig, Barry, & Kochanska, 2010;Prinzie et al, 2012).…”