Disentangling Genetic and Environmental Influences on Parent Personality and Parenting Behaviors

Understanding the determinants of parenting has been the focus of developmental and genetically informed studies for the past several decades. Examining how personality of the parent may contribute to their parenting behavior... [ view full abstract ]

Understanding the determinants of parenting has been the focus of developmental and genetically informed studies for the past several decades. Examining how personality of the parent may contribute to their parenting behavior can help to clarify if parenting is simply another “personality” construct as opposed to a distinct behavior that is shaped by many different factors. The present study used a sample of adult twin pairs, each with an adolescent child (matched to co-twin same-sex child age within 4 years), collected as part of the Twin/Offspring Study in Sweden (TOSS; N=909 twin pairs; (n = 386 MZ pairs, 63% female, Mage = 44.89 years, SD = 4.89) to examine genetic and environmental influences on the association between personality and parenting. Twins reported on the Temperament and Character Inventory harm avoidance subscale and the Karolinska Scales of Personality irritability, verbal, and indirect aggression subscales. Composites of parent reports of parental warmth and negativity, derived from factor scores of six scales of parent-adolescent relationship were examined. Aggressive personality and harm avoidance were correlated with negative and warm parenting (r = .31 and .24, p< 0.001, respectively) and were thus subjected to biometric analysis. Aggressive personality and parental negativity were explained by genetic and nonshared environmental influences (A=46% E=54%; A=36% E=64%, respectively) with a significant genetic (r_A=.44) and nonshared environmental (r_E=.22) correlation. Harm avoidance and parental warmth were also explained by genetic and nonshared environmental influences (A=44%, E=54%; A=43%, E=54%, respectively) with significant correlations between the genetic (r_A=.28) and nonshared environmental (r_E=.20) factors. Findings indicate that personality types have a differential shared genetic and environmental influence with parenting behaviors.