Parental personality as an inner resource that moderates the impact of ecological adversity on parenting.

Abstract

Parents' personality was examined as a moderator of the impact of demographic risk on parenting in a longitudinal study (N ϭ 102 families). Parents' personality and demographic risk (i.e., education level, age, family income, and family size) were assessed when children were infants, and parents' power assertion, warmth, and positive affect were observed in naturalistic interactions 2.5 years later. Parents' personality moderated the adverse impact of demographic risk on parenting. For parents who had memories of unstable and unhappy childhood experiences and who reported low conventionality, higher risk was linked to more power assertion, but there was no such link for those parents who recalled happy childhood experiences and who embraced conventions. For both parents who lacked a sense of optimism and social trust, and for fathers who reported low conventionality, higher risk was linked to less affectively positive parenting, but there was no such link for parents who were optimistic and trusting or for fathers who were conventional. Higher risk was linked to more power assertion, but only for mothers low in Extraversion and for fathers high in Neuroticism.

The role of parental personality traits in differential parenting.

“…Agreeable people also possess more ego-strength, hardiness, and general positive adjustment (Bemard, Hutchison, Lavin, & Pennington, 1996). Moreover, agreeable mothers have families with higher levels of parental education and annual household income (Kochanska, Aksan, Penney, & Boldt, 2007), factors that are associated with lower levels of DP (Jenkins et al, 2003).-Interestingly, mothers with very high levels of agreeableness exhibited slightly elevated levels of observed differential negativity relative to moderately agreeable mothers. This resultant "backward-J" curvilinear relationship between agreeableness and observed negativity was unexpected but not inconsistent with other literature.…”

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

“…Note that once such interactions are examined, they might well qualify all or some of the main effects of parental personality traits and clarify why in the personality literature such effects have not been consistently replicated. Furthermore, certain traits may be seen as the parent’s inner resources that can buffer (or amplify) adverse effects of risks (Kochanska, Aksan, Penney, & Boldt, 2007; Koenig, Barry, & Kochanska, 2010). Our goal was to examine how stress, hardship, or challenge in a family’s context moderates links between mothers’ personality and their parenting.…”

Parenting Predictors of Father-Child Attachment Security: Interactive Effects of Father Involvement and Fathering Quality

“…Numerous studies have assessed a wide variety of fathering behaviors, including power assertion (Kochanska, Aksan, & Joy, 2007), role reversal (Macfie, McElwain, Houts, & Cox, 2005), and style of play (Power & Parke, 1983) to name several. More commonly, this observational work has examined specific derivatives of sensitivity that typically include positive and/or negative affect (Carson & Parke, 1996;Isley, O'Neil, Clatfelter, & Parke, 1999), intrusiveness or over-control (Kochanska, Aksan, Penney, & Boldt, 2007;McDowell & Parke, 2005;Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, & Cabrera, 2006;Shannon, Tamis-LeMonda, London, & Cabrera, 2002), or physical/cognitive stimulation (Beitel & Parke, 1998;Belsky, Jaffee, Sligo, Woodward, & Silva, 2005). The scope of these assessments is impressive, and results suggest that qualitative aspects of fathering behavior may be tied to a broad range of child outcomes.…”