Direct and indirect relationships between parental personality and externalising behaviour: The role of negative parenting

Although the impact of parent characteristics and parenting practices on the development of behavioural problems in childhood is often recognised, only a few research programmes have assessed the unique contributions of negative parenting as well as the parent personality characteristics in the same study. Using the Five Factor Model, we examined the extent to which mothers' and father's personality characteristics were related to parenting and children's externalising behaviour in a proportional stratified sample of 599 nonclinical elementary school-aged children. Path analysis indicated that negative parenting practices and parents personality characteristics operate together to predict children's externalising problem behaviour. Consistent with past research (Patterson & Dishion, 1988; Patterson, Reid, & Dishion, 1992), parent personality traits were indirectly related to children's externalising problem behaviour. Their effect was mediated by negative parenting practices. But in addition and in contrast to Patterson's theoretical model, parent personality traits also contributed directly to children's externalising problem behaviour. For the mother data, as well as for the father data, the personality dimensions Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness were negatively and Autonomy was positively related to children's externalising problem behaviours.