The correlation of family parenting styles, personality characteristics and psychological health status among college students: a structural equation model study

Abstract

Objective To explore the relationship between college students' psychological health status, family parenting styles and personality characteristics using the structural equation model. Methods A total of 4 866 College students (2 122 males, 2 744 females) were surveyed with NEO five-factor inventory(NEO-FFI), family upbringing style questionnaire(FUSQ) and psychological symptom inventory-100(PSI-100). Lisrel 8.7 was used to construct the structural equation model. Results NEO-FFI total score was 198.08±15.31, PSI-100 total score was 167.08±68.23, father upbringing style questionnaire total score was 457.80±62.10, and mother upbringing style questionnaire total score was 459.27±61.91.For the factors of personality, the more influential factors were agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness. There was a negative correlation between good personality and psychological symptoms(path coefficient=–0.73, P<0.05). For the factors of family parenting styles, parenting dimension scores (such as mother's democracy, encouragement, understanding, father's supervision, respect) were negatively correlated with psychological symptom scores(path coefficient=–0.18, P<0.05). Conclusion Family parenting styles can directly affect the psychological symptoms and the personality status, thereby affecting mental health of college students. Personality characteristics could be a mediated variable to regulate the relationship between family parenting styles and psychological health of college students. Key words: Family upbringing style; Personality characteristics; Mental health; Structural equation model; College students