Mothers’ Temperament and Personality: Their Relationship to Parenting Behaviors, Locus of Control, and Young Children’s Functioning

Abstract

There appears to be a lack of construct clarity and a dearth of studies that have examined both mothers' temperament and personality in conjunction with parenting behaviors when predicting young children's functioning. As a result, this study examined these constructs jointly so that a further understanding of how mothers' temperament and personality may work together to predict young children's functioning could be gained. As part of this study, 214 diverse mothers with young children who ranged in age from 2- to 6-years rated their own temperament and personality, their parenting characteristics, and their young children's functioning (i.e., temperament and emotional and behavioral functioning). Based on the findings of hierarchical regression analyses completed in this study, both mothers' temperament and personality may be important individual predictors of young children's temperament but may be important joint predictors, along with parenting behaviors, of young children's behavior problems. Consequently, future research should examine the role that mothers' temperament and personality characteristics may play in conjunction with their parenting behaviors when trying to understand young children's functioning. These findings will be particularly helpful for professionals providing parenting interventions to families with young children who have difficult temperament styles and/or emotional and behavioral problems.

Maternal personality traits moderate treatment response in the Multimodal Treatment Study of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

“…Collectively, results suggest that children of mothers with high neuroticism and low conscientiousness may benefit most from structured behavioral treatments, either alone or added to medication. High neuroticism and low conscientiousness are associated with poor coping [30] and ineffective parenting practices [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Because behavioral treatments specifically target these deficits, children of personality-impaired mothers may demonstrate the largest gains in response to newly implemented effective parenting strategies.…”

“…Indeed, it is well known that personality traits affect parenting practices. Maladaptive personality profiles, such as high levels of neuroticism (anxious or nervous; prone to stress, guilt, frustration and anger) and low levels of conscientiousness (reliable, rule-abiding, organized, achievement driven) are associated with ineffective parenting (e.g., high levels of negative affectivity toward children) [23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Research has also documented an association between personality traits and coping styles, with conscientiousness predicting adaptive coping (e.g., problem solving), and neuroticism predicting maladaptive coping (e.g., wishful thinking) [30].…”

A psychological and medical analysis of temperament, character and behavior in children and adolescents of school refusal

“…Teenagers are going through puberty in the stage of development and at this point they will experience large degree of psychological growth as well as changes with relatively short duration. They are often subjected to such relatively complex contradictions as immature and mature as well as dependence and independence, which makes the students in this period more prone to psychological and behavioral biases [6][7][8][9]. A person's personality is an integration of unique and stable mental disposition as well as psychological characteristics [10][11][12].…”

A Lot of Warmth and a Bit of Control? How Parenting Mediates the Relationship Between Parental Personality and Their Children’s Mental Health Problems

“…Over the last decade, research has identified parental personality as an important contributor that may directly influence children's mental health development (Bertino et al, 2012, Nigg & Hinshaw, 1998, Ortiz Ruiz, 2018, Puff & Renk, 2016. For instance, Bertino et al (2012) found a positive association between parental borderline and antisocial personality patterns and their children's externalizing behaviour problems, with stronger relationships for adolescents than for children.…”