Maternal Personality, Parenting Cognitions, and Parenting Practices

Overview

Journal Dev Psychol

Publisher American Psychological Association

Specialties Pediatrics
Psychology

Date 2011 Mar 30

PMID 21443335

Citations 38

Authors

Marc H Bornstein

Chun-Shin Hahn

O Maurice Haynes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A community sample of 262 European American mothers of firstborn 20-month-olds completed a personality inventory and measures of parenting cognitions (knowledge, self-perceptions, and reports about behavior) and was observed in interaction with their children from which measures of parenting practices (language, sensitivity, affection, and play) were independently coded. Factor analyses of the personality inventory replicated extraction of the 5-factor model of personality (Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). When controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, the 5 personality factors qua variables and in patterns qua clusters related differently to diverse parenting cognitions and practices, supporting the multidimensional, modular, and specific nature of parenting. Maternal personality in the normal range, a theoretically important but empirically neglected factor in everyday parenting, has meaning in studies of parenting, child development, and family process.

Citing Articles

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