The relations between parents’ Big Five personality factors and parenting: A meta-analytic review.

Abstract

To investigate the association between Big Five personality factors and three dimensions of parenting-warmth, 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.

Parental brain‐derived neurotrophic factor genotype, child prosociality, and their interaction as predictors of parents’ warmth

“…A meta‐analysis has shown that homozygotes for the BDNF Val allele are characterized by higher levels of neuroticism (Frustaci, Pozzi, Gianfagna, Manzoli, & Boccia, 2008), and higher levels of neuroticism have been linked to lower levels of warmth (Prinzie et al., 2009). Additionally, it has been found that less neurotic fathers change their use of positive control according to their child's level of effortful control, while fathers with relatively high levels of neuroticism do not (Karreman et al., 2008).…”

“…Various factors have been shown to affect parental warmth, such as heritability (Klahr & Burt, 2014); the parent's personality (Prinzie, Stams, Deković, Reijntjes, & Belsky, 2009); the child's behavior (Barnett, Gustafsson, Deng, Mills‐Koonce, & Cox, 2012); and socioeconomic status (SES), race, and a dangerous neighborhood (Pinderhughes, Nix, Foster, & Jones, 2001). However, there is limited knowledge about which specific genes the heritability estimate represents, how the factors that affect warmth interact, how they affect differential parenting, and how they affect fathers, as most of the research to date has been done on mothers.…”

Conscientiousness, health, and aging: The Life Course of Personality Model.

“…Effective limit-setting, as opposed to either too lax or too rigid parental control and psychological manipulation, reflects the type of developmentally appropriate behavioral control and regulation of one's child that is typically associated with authoritative parenting and that avoids the negative control cycles associated with deteriorating parentchild relationships. Although a connection between parental C and limit-setting is intuitively appealing, it may be that child C is correlated with authoritative parenting, because the child models the parental personality and/or because of an evocative correlation (i.e., the child's C elicits or facilitates authoritative parenting; Prinzie et al, 2009). Thus, the avoidance of adolescent snares, such as those identified by Moffit and her colleagues, may involve a "web" of parental and child C, which in turn jointly facilitates authoritative parenting and more effective monitoring and limitsetting.…”

“…(a) Parental C. Adult C may be related to central indicators of parenting-including warmth, more effective behavioral control, and autonomy support, as well as family management-all of which might decrease children's exposure to stressors and increase their ability to cope with stress (Prinzie et al, 2009). In turn, the specific behaviors in which C parents engage may lead to healthpromoting family contexts (Huver, Otten, de Vries, & Engels, 2010), and some evidence suggests that the caregiver's C is especially salient in the management of risk.…”

“…Significantly, however, recent meta-analyses and reviews are consistent on one point: These associations are likely moderated by factors that are not yet well understood (Bogg & Roberts, 2004;Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010;Hampson, 2012;Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006;Poropat, 2009;Prinzie, Stams, Dekovic, Reijntjes, & Belsky, 2009). We propose three sources for these moderating factors: C-driven processes that influence health differ (1) across the phases of life, (2) across social contexts (including the C of significant others), and (3) in combination with other personality traits.…”