Parental behavior and attitudes of their parents reported by young adults from intact and stepparent families and relationships between perceived parenting and personality

Abstract

This study compares the perceptions of mothers and fathers by their children in intact families and stepparent families and the relationships between these descriptions of parenting and personality traits of the children. Subjects were college students: 133 from intact families, 87 from families with a stepfather and 19 from stepmother families. Descriptions of parenting by their children were obtained by a short form of the EMBU yielding three scores: Love, Punishment–Rejection and Control. Personality traits were measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R) and the Zuckerman–Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Stepmothers were rated lower on Mother Love and stepfathers were rated lower on Father Love than mothers and fathers in intact families. Mothers in stepfather families were rated higher in Punishment–Rejection and fathers in stepmother families were rated lower in Father Love than mothers and fathers in intact families. Despite their differences in perceptions of parents there were no differences in personality traits between children from the three types of families. Correlations between descriptions of parents and personality traits in the intact families for both sexes were mostly between Father Love (lack of) and Punishment–Rejection and Neuroticism in both the EPQ and ZKPQ. Father Punishment also correlated with Neuroticism in the stepfather families.