The role of parental personality traits in differential parenting.

Abstract

Significant relationships have been demonstrated between parental personality and parenting toward individual children, but there is little research exploring the relationship between parental personality and differential parenting (DP). The present study examined the relationship between the Big Five personality dimensions and differential positivity and negativity in parenting (observed and self-report measures). The analyses are based on a sample of 867 children nested within 381 families. Using multilevel modeling and controlling for child age, gender, birth order, behavior, and family socioeconomic status analyses revealed that maternal and paternal agreeableness were inversely related to reports of differential positivity. Agreeableness predicted observed differential negativity, and the relationship was curvilinear (at both high and low levels of agreeableness, differential negativity was higher). Finally, mothers with the most openness to experience exhibited the highest levels of reported differential negativity. The findings suggest that parental personality is a modest yet important influence to consider when conceptualizing the sources of DP.