Temperament, parental personality and parenting stress in relation to socio-emotional development at 51 months

ABSTRACT

This study examined the relevance of infant temperament, parent personality and parenting stress for children’s socio-emotional development, looking in addition for any differences between mothers and fathers. Participants, from a community sample, were 410 mothers and fathers reporting their personality (NEO Personality Inventory), child temperament in the first (Infant Characteristics Questionnaire) and second (Toddler Behavior Assessment Questionnaire) years, parenting stress to 36 months (Parenting Stress Index Short Form) and child behaviour at 51 months (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). Difficult toddler temperament was associated with more externalizing and internalizing problems. Higher paternal extraversion was associated with more prosocial behaviour whereas lower maternal extraversion was associated with more internalizing problems. For both parents, describing a dysfunctional parent–child relationship was related to more externalizing problems and to less prosocial behaviour, for fathers also to more internalizing problems, which associated for mothers with more parental distress.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental personality
• parental stress
• child temperament
• externalizing problems
• internalizing problems
• prosocial behaviour

Acknowledgements

Data for this study were drawn from the Families, Children and Childcare Study led by Dr. Penelope Leach and Professor Jacqueline Barnes in London and by Professor Alan Stein, Professor Kathy Sylva and Dr. Lars-Erik Malmberg in Oxford (see www.familieschildrenchildcare.org). Study data are freely available to the research community. For information contact Professor Jacqueline Barnes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Rosa Maria Ruiz Ortiz has qualifications from the Universities of Seville and Cadiz in Special Education, Pedagogy and Guidance. She is currently completing the Doctoral Program in Health Sciences at the University of Cadiz.

Jacqueline Barnes is Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. She is an internationally recognized expert in the study of community characteristics, family functioning and young children’s behaviour, and the evaluation of services for children and families, conducting research in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Additional information

Funding

The FCCC study was funded by the Tedworth Charitable Trust and the Glass-House Trust.