Children’s perception of parental relationship and personality traits in Argentinean children

Abstract

The objectives of this chapter are: 1. To study differences, according to gender, in the perception of the maternal and paternal parenting styles (acceptance, pathological control and extreme autonomy); 2. To study differences in personality traits, according to gender (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness); 3. To study the influence of parenting styles as perceived by children on their personality traits. The sample included 517 middle-class children aged 8–11 (M = 10.26, SD = .88) of both genders (253 boys and 264 girls), from primary schools in Argentina. The results indicate that maternal and paternal parenting are perceived in a different way by children, according to their gender. On the other hand, the results of this study revealed statistically significant differences in three of the “Big Five” personality traits, with female children showing higher levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism than boys. Lastly, this study showed that when children perceive that their parents are accepting, they development positive traits (i.e., high levels of extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness) and avoid the development of negative traits (i.e. neuroticism) regardless of gender. We found that when parents exert pathological control over their children, meaning excessive control with low levels of displays of affection and acceptance, children develop higher levels of neuroticism which at the same time generating lower levels of openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The results showed that extreme autonomy is associated with high levels of extraversion and low levels of openness to experience and agreeableness. However, no relationship was found to conscientiousness and neuroticism.