356 III. DEvELOPMENT
youth functioning (Belsky, Hsieh, & Crnic, 
1998).
Given the well-  documented links between 
psychopathology and personality (see Widi -
ger & Oltmanns, Chapter 36, this volume), 
it is also reasonable to expect parenting 
practices to influence changes  in offspring 
psychopathology. For example, recent stud -
ies have shown that parent hostility and 
low monitoring both predict increases in 
adolescent exploitativeness, a facet of nar -
cissism (Wetzel & Robins, 2016), and par -
ent hostility predicts increases in adolescent 
psychopathic personality traits (Tuvblad, 
Bezdjian, Raine, & Baker, 2013). Authori -
tarian, permissive, or controlling parenting 
each positively predict borderline features in 
adolescent females, after accounting for pre -
vious relational aggression (Nelson, Coyne, 
Swanson, Hart, & Olsen, 2014). In con -
trast, positive observed maternal behavior 
(i.e., support, validation, communication, 
autonomy support, and positive affect) re -
duces borderline personality disorder se -
verity scores (Whalen et al., 2014). Finally, 
intervention-  induced reductions in callous–  
unemotional traits during adolescence are 
mediated by intervention-  induced reduc -
tions in negative and inconsistent parenting 
(Elizur et al., 2017).The research reviewed in this section sug -
gests that parenting practices predict off -
spring personality development in impor -
tant ways (see Table 16.1 for a summary). 
However, other ways in which parenting 
and offspring personality may be related are 
shown in Figure 16.1. First, parenting may 
be influenced by the personality traits of the 
parent (path A) or the offspring (path B). 
Second, offspring personality may mediate 
the influence of parenting on offspring out -
comes (paths C and D), above and beyond 
any direct influence of parenting behavior 
on offspring outcomes (path E). Last, off -
spring personality may moderate the effects 
of parenting on offspring outcomes (paths E 
and F).
Both Parent and  Child Personality Predict 
Parenting  Behavior
Does Mrs. McCallister’s level of conscien -
tiousness influence whether she leaves Kevin 
at home? And does Kevin’s level of conscien -
tiousness evoke certain parenting behaviors 
from Mrs. McCallister? Parent personality 
traits are central to many theoretical mod -
els of parenting behavior (Belsky & Jaffee, 
2006) and are consistently correlated with 
multiple domains of parenting behavior 
TABLE 16.1.  Summary of Longitudinal Research on Parenting Practices and Offspring 
Personality  Development
Responsiveness  
(i.e., emotional 
climate)Demandingness  
(i.e., structure)Autonomy granting  
(i.e., support for 
individuation)
Temperament/personality traits
Effortful control/conscientiousness + + +
Negative emotionality/neuroticism – – –
Positive emotionality/agreeableness + ? ?
Surgency/extraversion – ? ?
Creativity/openness to experience + ? +
Personality pathology
Callous–unemotional traits/psychopathy – – ?
Aggression/conduct problems – – ?
Narcissism – – ?
Borderline personality – – –
Note . + indicates that higher levels of the parenting dimension predicts increases in personality trait; – indicates 
that higher levels of parenting dimension predicts decreases in personality trait; ? indicates no research has been 
done on the longitudinal associations between parenting dimension and personality trait.