The Mediational Role of Parenting on the Longitudinal Relation Between Child Personality and Externalizing Behavior

Abstract

Building on prior cross-sectional work, this longitudinal study evaluated the proposition that maternal and paternal overreactive and authoritative parenting mediates the effect of child personality characteristics on externalizing behavior. Data from the Flemish Study on Parenting, Personality, and Problem Behavior were used in a moderated mediation analysis (N=434). Teachers rated children's Big Five characteristics, fathers and mothers rated their parenting, and 3 years later, children rated their externalizing behavior. Mediational analysis revealed both direct and indirect effects. Higher levels of Extraversion and lower levels of Benevolence were related directly to higher levels of child externalizing behavior. Higher levels of paternal authoritative parenting and lower levels of maternal overreactivity were related to lower scores on externalizing behavior. In addition, the relation between Benevolence, Emotional Stability, and externalizing behavior was partially mediated by parental overreactivity. Conscientiousness had an indirect effect on externalizing behavior through paternal authoritative parenting. Relations were not moderated by child gender. This study is of theoretical interest because the results demonstrate that parenting is a mediating mechanism that accounts for associations between personality and externalizing behavior.

Behavioral problems in children with motor and intellectual disabilities: Prevalence and associations with maladaptive personality and marital relationship

“…Results showed no association of maladaptive personality traits with anxiety. Taken together, results in children with MID are similar to results of studies in a normal population in that lower scores on Compulsivity (Prinzie et al, 2003;Van Leeuwen et al, 2004), higher scores on Emotional Instability (Tackett, 2006) and Disagreeableness (Prinzie et al, 2010) are risk factors for developing behavioral problems, supporting the vulnerability model. These maladaptive personality traits may function as a diathesis by predisposing a child with MID for developing behavioral problems under specific circumstances.…”

“…However, previous research has mainly focused on the associations between behavioral problems and measures of adaptive personality traits. For example, research in representative community samples has identified consistent relationships between low Conscientiousness, low Agreeableness, high Extraversion and to a lesser extent high Neuroticism (Prinzie et al, 2003;Prinzie, Van der Sluis, De Haan, & Deković , 2010;Tackett, 2006;Van Leeuwen, Mervielde, Braet, & Bosmans, 2004) and behavioral problems. Given the importance of personality in the forthcoming DSM-V (Widiger, 2011;Widiger & Mullins-Sweatt, 2009) and the fact that maladaptive personality traits have not yet been studied in children with MID, the third aim of this study was to investigate the association of behavioral problems with maladaptive personality traits.…”

“…A third aim was to examine of the association between behavioral problems and maladaptive personality traits. Based on the literature on personality traits in normal populations and in line with the vulnerability model, we hypothesized that low scores on Compulsivity, high scores on Emotional Instability and high scores on Disagreeableness would be related to behavioral problems (Prinzie et al, 2003(Prinzie et al, , 2010Tackett, 2006;Van Leeuwen et al, 2004). Fourth, we aimed to investigate the relationship between behavioral problems and marital stress and conflict.…”

“…These maladaptive personality traits may function as a diathesis by predisposing a child with MID for developing behavioral problems under specific circumstances. One mechanism that has been put forward is the effect of the interaction between personality traits and parenting on the development of behavioral problems (e.g., Prinzie et al, 2003Prinzie et al, , 2010. These interactions may reflect an evocative transactional process between the child and the parents (Roberts & Caspi, 2003).…”

An impact and feasibility evaluation of a six-week (nine hour) active play intervention on fathers’ engagement with their preschool children: a feasibility study

“…Parenting practices which are associated with positive child development and encouraged through parenting programmes encourage an authoritative (firm but fair) parenting style (Hurlburt, Nguyen, Reid, Webster-Stratton, & Zhang, 2013). Authoritative fathering has been associated with a number of benefits for child well-being and development and has been shown to reduce the likelihood of the child developing problem behaviours (Prinzie, Van Der Sluis, De Hann, & Dekovic (2010).…”