 16. Personality and Parenting 361
well-being into adulthood (path E in Figure 
16.1; Knoester, 2003; Umberson, 1992). 
Although parent–  offspring relationships 
typically improve in adulthood (which could 
open doors for socialization) (Arnett, 2004), 
an even wider set of conditions can weaken 
parents’ influence on offspring traits. For 
example, time spent with parents becomes 
voluntary (i.e., adult offspring can choose 
whether their parents have the proximity or 
possibility of socialization) (Larson & Rich -
ards, 1994). Moreover, although youth in in -
dustrialized countries are experiencing more 
delayed transitions into adulthood (Arnett, 
1998; Bleidorn et al., 2013), the transition 
to adult life has benefits for personality 
development—  most notably, increases in 
conscientiousness (Bleidorn, 2012). How -
ever, for some emerging adults who continue 
to live in the home, parents feel the need 
to regulate for them (Dubas & Petersen, 
1996), which can maladaptively influence 
subsequent trait maturity. Additionally, per -
sonality traits become increasingly stable in 
adulthood and have clear mean-level trends 
(Roberts & Nickel, Chapter 11, this volume) 
that are widely influenced by close others 
(e.g., spouses), social roles, and life events 
(Bleidorn, Hopwood, & Lucas, 2018).
Conclusion
Parenting practices have widespread ef -
fects on offspring personality development. 
Moreover, the pathways in which parenting 
behaviors influence offspring personality 
traits and life outcomes are multiply deter -
mined (as shown in Figure 16.1). It is evident 
that a parent’s own personality traits influ -
ence which parenting practices he or she 
chooses. These same parenting behaviors, 
however, are also shaped by the offspring, 
in that offspring personality traits evoke 
certain behaviors and responses from the 
parent. Furthermore, there is some evidence 
that offspring personality mediates and 
moderates the influence of parenting behav -
ior on offspring life outcomes, which helps 
researchers and practitioners understand 
how and why  parenting and personality are 
related. However, beyond childhood and ad -
olescence, we know little about the parent– 
offspring relationship and whether parent -ing behaviors continue to shape personality 
development into adulthood.
Moving forward, the study of personal -
ity and parenting needs more longitudinal 
research that includes multiple measures 
of parenting, especially observational mea -
sures. There is also a need for more formal 
tests of the degree to which parenting be -
havior influences development by chang -
ing offspring trait characteristics, as well as 
increased attention to second-  order effects 
between parenting and personality. Null ef -
fects need to be reported in order to prevent 
publication biases. This is especially true in 
an area of research in which our intuitions 
tell us that parenting should  matter, because 
confirmation bias may make us more dis -
trustful of findings in which it does not. Fi -
nally, this research will advance as context 
is given proper consideration; not all parents 
may agree that a particular trait will benefit 
their child in the present environment, mak -
ing studies that do not account for person– 
environment fit incomplete.
Although the influence of parenting has 
been of long-  standing interest and has accu -
mulated vast amounts of empirical research, 
the field has much to learn beyond the basic 
associations between parenting and per -
sonality. Parents are the first, and possibly 
the most important, socializing agents for 
adaptive development, which makes it cru -
cial to continue to push research forward in 
this area. As the film Home Alone shows, it 
is possible to physically survive a vacation 
without family, but the influence of parents 
on offspring endures.
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