Transactional development of parent personality and child temperament

Abstract

Stability and change in parental extraversion and neuroticism were studied in transaction with their views of their child's temperament from the age of six months to the age of five‐and‐a‐half years in 109 mother–father–child triads (parent–daughter: n = 61, parent–son: n = 48). While parental traits showed high stability, infants' higher positive affectivity predicted an increase in parental extraversion over 5 years, and infant's higher activity predicted a decrease in parental neuroticism. Parent‐rated temperament showed expected heterotypic continuity. Initially higher parental extraversion predicted an increase in the child's effortful control, and higher parental neuroticism predicted an increase in the child's negative affectivity. The results indicate that parental personality and child temperament develop in transaction promoting change in each other. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords

multilevel analysis development of personality personality change transactional development temperament

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ansell

E. B.

Pincus

A. L.

(2004).Interpersonal perceptions of the five‐factor model of personality: An examination using the structural summary method for circumplex data. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39,167–201.

Asendorpf

J. B.

Van Aken

M. A. G.

(2003).Personality‐relationship transaction in adolescence: Core versus surface personality characteristics. Journal of Personality, 71,629–666.

Belsky

(1997).Variation in susceptibility to environmental influences: An evolutionary argument. Psychological Inquiry, 8,182–186.

Belsky

Fish

Isabella

(1991).Continuity and discontinuity in infant negative and positive emotionality: Family antecedents and attachment consequences. Developmental Psychology, 27,421–431.

Boivin

Pérusse

Dionne

(2005).The genetic‐environmental etiology of parents' perceptions and self‐assessed behaviours toward their 5‐month‐old infants in a large twin and singleton sample. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46,612–630.

Bollen

K. A.

(1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York: Wiley.

Browne

M. W.

Cudeck

(1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen , & J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models(pp.136–162). Newbury Park: Sage.

Calkins

S. D.

Hungerford

Dedmon

S. E.

(2004).Mothers' interactions with temperamentally frustrated infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 25,219–239.

Caspi

Roberts

B. W.

(1999). Personality continuity and change across the life course. In Pervin, L. A. & John O. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research(2nd ed., pp.300–326). New York: Guilford Press.

10.

Caspi

Roberts

B. W.

Shiner

R. L.

(2005).Personality development: Stability and change. Annual Review of Psychology, 56,453–484.

11.

Clark

L. A.

Watson

(1999). Temperament: A new paradigm for trait psychology. In Pervin, L. A. & John O. P. (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research(2nd ed., pp.399–423). New York: Guilford Press.

12.

Colder

C. R.

Mott

J. A.

Berman

A. S.

(2002).The interactive effects of infant activity level and fear on growth trajectories of early childhood behavior problems. Development and Psychopathology, 14,1–23.

13.

Collins

W. A.

Maccoby

E. E.

Steinberg

Hetherington

Bornstein

M. H.

(2000).Contemporary research on parenting: The case for nature and nurture. American Psychologist, 55,218–232.

14.

Costa

P. T.

McCrae

R. R.

(1985). The NEO personality inventory manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

15.

Costa

P. T.

McCrae

R. R.

(1988).Personality in adulthood: A six‐year longitudinal study of self‐reports and spouse ratings on the NEO personality inventory. Journal of Personality and social psychology, 54,853–863.

16.

Costa

P. T.

McCrae

R. R.

(1992).Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO personality inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4,5–13.

17.

Costa

P. T.

Herbst

J. H.

McCrae

R. R.

Siegler

I. C.

(2000).Personality at midlife: Stability, intrinsic maturation, and response to life events. Assessment, 7,365–378.

18.

Cowan

C. P.

Cowan

P. A.

Heming

Miller

N. B.

(1991). Becoming a family: Marriage, parenting, and child development. In Cowan, P. A. & Hetherington E. M. (Eds.), Family transitions(pp.79–109). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

19.

Crockenberg

S. C.

Leerkes

E. M.

Lekka

S. K.

(2007).Pathways from marital aggression to infant emotion regulation: The development of withdrawal in infancy. Infant Behavior and Development, 30,97–113.

20.

Eaton

W. Q.

(1994). Temperament, development, and the five‐factor model: Lessons from activity level. In C. F. Halverson , D. Kohnstamm , & R. Martin (Eds.), The developing structure of temperament and personality from infancy to adulthood(pp.173–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

21.

Fleeson

(2007).Situation‐based contingencies underlying trait‐content manifestation in behavior. Journal of Personality, 75,825–861.

22.

Fraley

R. C.

Roberts

B. W.

(2005).Patterns of continuity: A dynamic model for conceptualizing the stability of individual differences in psychological constructs across the life course. Psychological Review, 112,60–74.

23.

Gandour

M. J.

(1989).Activity level as a dimension of temperament in toddlers: Its relevance for the organismic specificity hypothesis. Child Development, 60,1092–1098.

24.

Gartstein

M. A.

Bateman

A. E.

(2008).Early manifestations of childhood depression: Influences of infant temperament and parental depressive symptoms. Infant and Child Development, 17,223–248.

25.

Gartstein

M. A.

Rothbart

M. K.

(2003).Studying infant temperament via the revised infant behavior questionnaire. Infant Behavior and Development, 26,64–86.

26.

Goldsmith

H. H.

Lemery

K. S.

Buss

K. A.

Campos

J. J.

(1999).Genetic analyses of focal aspects of infant temperament. Developmental Psychology, 35,972–985.

27.

Hagekull

Bohlin

(1998).Preschool temperament and environmental factors related to the five‐factor model of personality in middle childhood. Merrill‐Palmer Quarterly, 44,194–215.

28.

Heinonen

Räikkönen

Scheier

M. F.

Pesonen

A.‐K.

Järvenpää

A.‐L.

Strandberg

(2006).Parents' optimism is related to their ratings of their children's behavior. European Journal of Personality, 20,421–445.

29.

Helson

Kwan

V. S. Y.

Jones

O. P.

(2002).The growing evidence for personality change in adulthood: Findings from research with personality inventories. Journal of Research in Personality, 36,287–306.

30.

Johnson

McGue

Krueger

R. F.

(2005).Personality stability in late adulthood: A behavioral genetic analysis. Journal of Personality, 73,523–551.

31.

Kagan

(1994). Galen's prophecy. New York: Basic.

32.

Kagan

(1998). Biology and the child. In W. Damon (Series Ed), & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional and personality development(Vol. 3,5th ed., pp.177–235). New York: Wiley.

33.

Kochanska

Friesenborg

A. E.

Lange

L. A.

(2004).Parents' personality and infants' temperament as contributors to their emerging relationship. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86,744–759.

34.

Kochanska

Aksan

Penney

S. J.

Doobay

A. F.

(2007).Early positive emotionality as a heterogenous trait: Implications for children's self‐regulation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 93,1054–1066.

35.

Komsi

Räikkönen

Pesonen

A.‐K.

Heinonen

Keskivaara

Järvenpää

A.‐L.

(2006).Continuity of temperament from infancy to middle childhood. Infant Behavior and Development, 29,494–508.

36.

Komsi

Räikkönen

Heinonen

Pesonen

A.‐K.

Keskivaara

Strandberg

(2008).Continuity of father‐rated temperament from infancy to middle childhood. Infant Behavior and Development, 31,239–254.

37.

Kurdek

L. A.

(2003).Correlates of parents' perceptions of behavioral problems in their young children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24,457–473.

38.

Lemery

K. S.

Goldsmith

H. H.

Klinnert

M. D.

Mrazek

D. A.

(1999).Developmental models of infant and childhood temperament. Developmental Psychology, 35,189–204.

39.

Lengua

L. J.

Kovacs

E. A.

(2005).Bidirectional associations between temperament and parenting and the prediction of adjustment problems in middle childhood. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26,21–38.

40.

Mangelsdorf

Gunnar

Kestenbaum

(1990).Infant proneness‐to‐distress temperament, maternal personality, and mother‐infant attachment: Associations and goodness of fit. Child Development, 61,820–831.

41.

Majdandzic

van den Boom

D. C.

(2007).Multimethod longitudinal assessment of temperament in early childhood. Journal of Personality, 75,121–167.

42.

Marsh

H. W.

Hocevar

(1988).A new, more powerful approach to multitrait‐multimethod analyses: Application of second‐order confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 73,107–117.

43.

McCrae

R. R.

Costa

P. T.

(1987).Validation of a five‐factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,81–90.

44.

McCrae

R. R.

Costa

P. T.

(1990). Personality in adulthood. New York: Guilford.

45.

McCrae

R. R.

Costa

P. T.

Ostendorf

Angleitner

Hřebíčková

Avia

M. D.

(2000).Nature over nurture: Temperament, personality, and life span development. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78,173–186.

46.

McCrae

R. R.

John

O. P.

(1992).An introduction to the five‐factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60,175–215.

47.

Mezulis

A. H.

Hyde

J. S.

Abramson

L. Y.

(2006).The developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression: Temperament, parenting, and negative life events in childhood as contributors to negative cognitive style. Developmental Psychology, 42,1012–1025.

48.

Mills‐Koonce

W. R.

Propper

C. B.

Gariepy

J.‐L.

(2007).Bidirectional genetic and environmental influences of mother and child behavior: The family system as the unit of analyses. Development and psychopathology, 19,1073–1087.

49.

Muthén

L. K.

Muthén

B. O.

(1998–2006). Mplus user's guide. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén and Muthén.

50.

Nelson

C. A.

Bloom

F. E.

(1997).Child development and neuroscience. Child Development, 68,970–987.

51.

Neyer

F. J.

Asendorpf

J. B.

(2001).Personality‐relationship transaction in young adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81,1190–1204.

52.

Neyer

F. J.

Lehnart

(2007).Relationships matter in personality development: Evidence from an 8‐year longitudinal study across young adulthood. Journal of Personality, 75,535–568.

53.

O'Connor

(2006).Toward integrating behavioral genetics and family process. Families, Systems, and Health, 24,416–424.

54.

Paris

Helson

(2002).Early mothering experience and personality change. Journal of Family Psychology, 16,172–185.

55.

Pauli‐Pott

Mertesacker

Bade

Havercock

Beckmann

(2003).Parental perceptions and infant temperament development. Infant Behavior and Development, 26,27–48.

56.

Propper

Moore

G. A.

(2006).The influence of parenting on infant emotionality: A multi‐level psychobiological perspective. Developmental Review, 26,427–460.

57.

Pulver

Allik

Pulkkinen

Hämäläinen

(1995).A big five personality inventory in two non‐Indo‐European languages. European Journal of Personality, 9,109–124.

58.

Putnam

S. P.

Ellis

L. K.

Rothbart

M. K.

(2001). The structure of temperament from infancy through adolescence. In A. Eliasz , & A. Angleitner (Eds.), Advances in research on temperament(pp.165–182). Germany: Pabst Science.

59.

Putnam

S. P.

Gartstein

M. A.

Rothbart

M. K.

(2006).Measurement of fine‐grained aspects of toddler temperament: The early childhood behavior questionnaire. Infant Behavior and Development, 29,386–401.

60.

Putnam

S. P.

Rothbart

M. K.

Gartstein

M. A.

(in press).Homotypic and heterotypic continuity of fine‐grained temperament during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood. Infant and Child Development.

61.

Roberts

B. W.

Caspi

Moffitt

T. E.

(2003).Work experiences and personality development in young adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84,582–593.

62.

Roberts

B. W.

Chapman

C. N.

(2000).Change in dispositional well‐being and its relation to role quality: A 30‐year longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 34,26–41.

63.

Roberts

B. W.

Walton

K. E.

Viechtbauer

(2006).Patterns of mean‐level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta‐analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132,1–25.

64.

Roberts

B. W.

Wood

Smith

J. L.

(2005).Evaluating five factor theory and social investment perspectives on personality trait development. Journal of Research in Personality, 39,166–184.

65.

Robins

R. W.

Caspi

Moffitt

T. E.

(2002).It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: Personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships. Journal of Personality, 70,925–964.

66.

Rothbart

M. K.

(1981).Measurement of temperament in infancy. Child Development, 52,569–578.

67.

Rothbart

M. K.

(1986).Longitudinal observation of infant temperament. Developmental Psychology, 22,356–365.

68.

Rothbart

M. K.

(1989). Biological processes of temperament. In G. A. Kohnstamm , J. E. Bates , & M. K. Rothbart (Eds.), Temperament in childhood(pp.77–110). Chichester, England: Wiley.

69.

Rothbart

M. K.

Ahadi

S. A.

Hershey

K. L.

Fisher

(2001).Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: The children's behavior questionnaire. Child Development, 72,1394–1408.

70.

Rothbart

M. K.

Bates

(2006). Temperament. In W. Damon (Series Ed), & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed), Handbook of child psychology: Social emotional and personality development(Vol. 3,6th ed., pp.99–166). New York: Wiley.

71.

Rubin

K. H.

Nelson

L. J.

Hastings

Asendorpf

(1999).The transaction between parents' perceptions of their children's shyness and their parenting styles. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 23,937–958.

72.

Sameroff

A. J.

(1995). General systems theories and developmental psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti , & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology(pp.659–695). New York: Wiley.

73.

Sameroff

A. J.

Fiese

B. H.

(2000). Models of development and developmental risk. In Zeanah C. H. Jr. (Ed.), Handbook of infant mental health(2nd ed., pp.3–19). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.

74.

Scarr

(1992).Developmental theories for the 1990s: Development and individual differences. Child Development, 63,1–19.

75.

Scarr

McCartney

(1983).How people make their own environments: A theory of genotype to environment effects. Child Development, 54,424–435.

76.

Schore

A. N.

(2001).The effects of a secure attachment relationship on right brain development, affect regulation, and infant mental health. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22,7–66.

77.

Scollon

C. N.

Diener

(2006).Love, work, and changes in extraversion and neuroticism over time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91,1152–1165.

78.

Seifer

Sameroff

Dickstein

Schiller

Hayden

(2004).Your own children are special: Clues to the sources of reporting bias in temperament assessments. Infant Behavior and Development, 27,323–341.

79.

Sirignano

S. W.

Lachman

M. E.

(1985).Personality change during the transition to parenthood: The role of perceived infant temperament. Developmental Psychology, 21,558–567.

80.

Strandberg

T. E.

Järvenpää

A.‐L.

Vanhanen

McKeigue

P. M.

(2001).Birth outcome in relation to licorice consumption during pregnancy. American Journal of Epidemiology, 153,1085–1088.

81.

Stifter

C. A.

Spinrad

T. L.

(2002).The effect of excessive crying on the development of emotion regulation. Infancy, 3,133–152.

82.

Stright

A. D.

Gallagher

K. C.

Kelley

(2008).Infant temperament moderates relations between maternal parenting in early childhood and children's adjustment in first grade. Child Development, 79,186–200.

83.

Tennen

Affleck

Armeli

(2005).Personality and daily experience revisited. Journal of Personality, 73,1–19.

84.

Terracciano

Costa

P. T.

McCrae

R. R.

(2006).Personality plasticity after age 30. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32,999–1009.

85.

Terracciano

McCrae

R. R.

Brant

L. J.

Costa

P. T.

(2005).Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of the NEO‐PI‐R scales in the Baltimore longitudinal study of aging. Psychology and Aging, 20,493–506.

86.

Uziel

(2006).The extraverted and the neurotic glasses are of different colors. Personality and Individual Differences, 41,745–754.

87.

Vaidya

J. G.

Gray

E. K.

Haig

(2002).On the temporal stability of personality: Evidence for differential stability and the role of life experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83,1469–1484.

88.

Van Aken

M. A. G.

Denissen

J. J. A.

Branje

S. J. T.

Dubas

J. S.

Goossens

(2006).Midlife concerns and short‐term personality change in middle adulthood. European Journal of Personality, 20,497–513.

89.

Van den Boom

D. C.

(1994).The influence of temperament and mothering on attachment and exploration: An experimental manipulation of sensitive responsiveness among lower‐class mothers with irritable infants. Child Development, 65,1457–1477.

90.

Van den Boom

D. C.

(1989). Neonatal irritability and the development of attachment. In G. A. Kohnstamm , J. E. Bates , & M. K. Rothbart (Eds.), Temperament in childhood(pp.299–318). Oxford: John Wiley & Sons.

91.

Wachs

T. D.

(2006). The nature, etiology, and consequences of individual differences in temperament. In L. Balter , & C. S. Tamis‐LeMonda (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues(2nd ed., pp.27–52). New York: Psychology Press.

92.

Wachs

T. D.

(1992). The nature of nurture. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

93.

Wachs

T. D.

(1987).Specificity of environmental action as manifest in environmental correlates of infant's mastery motivation. Developmental psychology, 23,782–790.