Poster #206 - Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Parent Positive Personality, Perception of Daily Hassles, and Child Self-Control

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Parent personality is a salient predictor of child behavior (Costa & McCrae, 1985), but is less-commonly studied as specific personality characteristics (e.g., Baker, Blacher, & Olsson, 2005). Parent positivity may be a facet of personality with an intergenerational influence on child outcomes (Schofield, Conger, & Neppl, 2014). In the current study, we investigated the relations of specific aspects of parent positive personality (PPP) on child self-control. Self-control predicts a range of problem behaviors (Moffitt et al., 2011), but this construct is typically explored in relation to parent regulation. We hypothesized that greater PPP would relate to greater child self-control through the intermediary processes of parenting warmth and perceptions of daily hassles.
Family triads consisting of two children between the ages of 4-12 (N=212, 52% male; 86% Caucasian) and one primary caregiver participated in an ongoing study. PPP was assessed using three self-report scales: Optimism (Carver, 2013), Hope (Hearth, 1992), and Self-Compassion (Raes, Pommier, Neff, & Gucht, 2010). Perceptions of parenting hassles were assessed using the Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (Crnic & Greenberg, 1990; Crnic & Booth, 1991). A behavioral measure of parenting was computed based on parental behavior during a toy share task (Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery; Goldsmith, 2001). Observed parenting was coded as functional (verbal praise, initiates positivity, verbal discipline, enforces rules) or dysfunctional (initiates negativity, verbal threat, ignoring). Self-reported parenting was assessed using the Child Rearing Practices Report (Block, 1965). Standardized scores were computed for observed and self-reported parenting and a mean composite was formed. Child self-control of behavior was assessed using the behavioral conduct scale from Harter’s Self-Perception Profile for Children (1999; 2012). See Table 1 for zero-order correlation and descriptive statistics.
A dual-mediator model, controlling for child sex, parent depression, socioeconomic status, and child and parent age was tested using multilevel regression analyses. Daily hassles partially mediated the relation between PPP and child self-control (c-c′=.10): more PPP related to lower perceptions of daily struggles as hassles, which in turn related to higher self-reports of child self-control. Parenting did not mediate the relation between the two major variables, but the relation between PPP and parenting was significant. Interestingly, and perhaps a function of measurement, parents self-reported high warmth, but we observed low levels of parent-child warmth. It should be noted that even within this low-risk sample, higher SES parents reported more PPP, fewer hassles, warmer parenting, and children reported higher levels of self-control. Thus, the importance of economic and other cultural factors should not be minimized.
In the current study, only perception of daily hassles significantly mediated the link between PPP and child self-control, perhaps because parents may be more accurate reporters of their daily hassles than their general parenting. Many researchers (e.g., Crnic & Greenberg, 1990; Gulseven et al., 2017) have found that daily parenting hassles were significantly linked to negative child outcomes. Our findings reflect this and offer a potential pathway through which specific parent personality characteristics may influence child self-control. Further analyses will continue to examine aspects of observed parenting as a mediator of these processes.

Authors

• Rylie Putrich, Illinois College
  Presenting Author

• Abbey Keller, Illinois College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Theah Caitlin Vasquez-O'Brien, Illinois College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Rellinger Zettler, Illinois College
  Non-Presenting Author