The relation between parent personality traits and children psychopathology: A pilot study

Abstract

IntroductionPersonality plays a crucial role in a person's behavior, emotions and cognitive patterns and shows an important relationship with several variables such as marital status, mental disorders or parenting models. However, little is known about the relation between the parental Big Five personality traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness) and children psychopathology regardless of the diagnostic of their offspring.ObjectivesTo analyze the correlation between parents’ Big Five personality traits and their children categorical diagnosis and psychopathology score.MethodsThe authors recruited 105 children in the outpatient unit of the child and adolescent psychiatry department of the pediatric hospital of Coimbra and their 117 parents. Parents were assessed using the Portuguese version of Neo Five-Factor Inventory and children psychopathology scores were rated by child and adolescent psychiatrists using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children.ResultsForty-nine children (46.7%) were male and 56 (53.3%) were female, with a mean age of 12.5 ± 3.2 and 13.6 ± 2.9, respectively. Twenty parents (17.1%) were male and 97 (82.9%) were female, with a mean age of 45.8 ± 4.1 and 41.2 ± 5.4, respectively. After excluding children diagnosed with Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorders and intellectual developmental disorder, Pearson's correlation coefficients were significant between: parents’ neuroticism and children Uncooperativeness (0.211), Manipulativeness (0.238), Hallucinations (0.257), Sleep difficulties (0.296) and Disorientation (0.204); parents’ agreeableness and children hostility (−0.228); and parent's conscientiousness and children disorientation (−0.231), all P < 0.05.ConclusionsThese preliminary results suggest that parental personality traits may influence psychopathological outcomes in their children. Data are still being collected to clarify the nature of this relationship.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.