Poster #126 - Parental Personality and Parenting as Predictors of Children’s Emotions During Parent-Child Interaction

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Parenting and family experiences are significant to children’s emotional development (Repetti et al., 2002), especially in early childhood when parents are often the main source of children’s social interactions. Thus, examining which parent characteristics, specifically parent personality, and which parenting behaviors, specifically sensitivity and intrusiveness, relate child emotionality is important. Parent personality is a stable trait (Atherton et al., 2021), whereas parenting behavior may be adaptive to specific contexts. Links between parent personality and parenting behavior have been noted. For example, parental agreeableness is associated with less harsh or coercive parenting (Coplan et al., 2009). Sensitive caregiving is associated with fewer negative emotions and more positive emotions (Belsky, 1991), whereas parental intrusiveness may be related to less optimal child outcomes. For example, toddlers whose parents exhibited more intrusive behavior had preschool-aged children with less emotion regulation (Diemer et al., 2021).

We examined parenting behavior as a mediator of the relation from parent personality to children’s emotional expressivity in school-aged children. We predicted that parent personality would be associated with parental sensitivity and intrusiveness, which would be associated with less child negative emotionality and more positive emotionality.

Participants included 106 school-age children (54 boys, M age=88.43 months, SD=7.79 months) and their caregivers (98 mothers). Of the caregivers, 99 identified as non-Hispanic white. Caregivers were also relatively well-educated (52.8% had at least a master’s degree), 81.1% of caregivers were employed, and 74.3% had annual incomes above $75,000. Caregivers and children participated in a 6-minute freeplay, where dyads played with toys as they would at home. Caregivers completed the Big Five Inventory (John & Soto, 1991); subscales were computed for each of the five subscales (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness). Caregiver sensitivity was coded on a 4-point scale based on the level of caregiver contingent responsiveness to their child. Caregiver intrusiveness was coded on a 4-point scale based on the level of overcontroll, directiveness, and harsh behaviors. Child positive and negative affect were scored on a 4-point scale. Parent and child behaviors were scored in 20-second intervals; average scores were computed.

Parental personality and parent sensitivity and instrusiveness did not predict children’s positive emotions during the freeplay. Next, a series of mediation models were conducted including parent sensitivity/instrusiveness as a mediator of parent personality to child negative affect. Full mediation was supported in two models. Parents with higher self-reported agreeableness displayed more sensitivity, which predicted less child negative affect during the freeplay (see Figure 1). Parents with higher self-reported extraversion displayed more intrusiveness, which predicted more child negative affect (see Figure 2).

These findings suggest that context-driven parenting behavior may mediate relations between stable parental personality and child emotion expressivity. Parents who are lower in agreeableness may be able to optimize their sensitive behaviors to reduce negative experiences for their children. Similarly, parents high in extraversion displayed more intrusive behaviors, which were associated with more child negativity. These finds suggest ways to support parenting behaviors that are more optimal by identifying and potentially changing parent characteristics that are related to their parenting behaviors.

Authors

• Nari Kang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
  Presenting Author

• Diana Devine, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Cynthia L. Smith, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University