The Relationship Between Personality and Parental Confidence in Mothers of School-Aged Children

Susan M Henney

doi:10.1177/2158244016659317

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between personality and parental confidence among mothers of school-aged children. The relationships between personality and parenting competence and also between parental confidence and parenting competence are established in the literature, but the relationship between personality and parental confidence is little explored. One hundred twenty-one mothers of school-aged children were surveyed regarding their demographics and parenting confidence, and they also completed the 16PF personality measure. Hierarchical regression analysis found that higher Dominance, Self-Control, and Independence predicted higher maternal confidence, whereas higher Apprehension and Anxiety predicted lower maternal confidence. Black mothers had higher levels of parental confidence overall than mothers of other ethnicities. These results are discussed in the context of understanding parenting behaviors and designing parenting interventions.

Highlights

How does a woman come to the awareness that she is a “good mother”? Surely her confidence in her own ability to take care of, discipline, and forward the interests of her children is part of the equation
A correlational analysis was conducted between the parental confidence index and both the primary personality factors and the global factors
The results indicated that the personality factor of Apprehension (r = −.29, p < .01) and the global factor of Anxiety (r = −.22, p < .05) were negatively correlated with the mother’s parental confidence

Summary

Introduction

How does a woman come to the awareness that she is a “good mother”? Surely her confidence in her own ability to take care of, discipline, and forward the interests of her children is part of the equation. The existing literature features many definitions of parental confidence or parental self-efficacy. Badr (2005) defined parenting confidence as, “the perception mothers have about their ability to care for and understand” their children Coleman and Karraker (2000) defined parental self-efficacy as “parents’ self-referent estimations of competence in the parental role or as parents’ perceptions of their ability to positively influence the behavior and development of their children.” The mediational role of parental efficacy has been studied, whereby parents with children with behavioral disturbances used less aversive discipline if they were high in self-efficacy (Day, Factor, & Szkiba-Day, 1994) and parents’ behavior was indirectly affected by children’s externalizing behavior via parental efficacy (Meunier, Roskam, & Browne, 2011)

Methods

Results

Conclusion