 16. Personality and Parenting 357
(see path A in Figure 16.1; for a review, see 
Prinzie, Stams, Dekovi ć, Reijntjes, & Bel -
sky, 2009). However, only one of the studies 
described in the review by Prinzie and col -
leagues actually examined change over time 
in parenting behavior (Michalik, 2005), 
which reflects the dearth of research on how 
parent personality predicts changes  in par -
enting behavior. Although Michalik did not 
find parent personality to predict relative 
changes in observed parenting, more recent 
work shows that parent personality does 
predict relative changes in observed parent -
ing (Schofield et al., 2012) and informant- 
reported parenting (de Haan, Dekovi ć, & 
Prinzie, 2012).
The hypothesis that child personality also 
leads to certain parenting responses (path 
B in Figure 16.1) has strong empirical sup -
port (e.g., Avinun & Knafo, 2014; de Haan, 
Soenens, Dekovi ć, & Prinzie, 2013; Klahr & 
Burt, 2014). For example, babies born with 
a tendency to smile elicit more positive re -
sponses from others than do subdued, unre -
sponsive infants (LaFreniere, 2000; Plomin, 
1995). In one study of children’s ability to 
evoke parenting behavior among a sample 
of more than 1,000 5-year-old twins, par -
ents’ physical punishment was strongly in -
fluenced by the children’s genetic predispo -
sitions to be antisocial and defiant. Links 
between parents’ punishment and children’s 
antisocial tendencies were higher among 
pairs of monozygotic twins than among 
pairs of dizygotic twins (Jaffee et al., 2004). 
Higher behavioral inhibition at child age 3 
was associated with more structured parent -
ing when the child was age 5 (Liu, Kryski, Smith, Joanisse, & Hayden, 2019). Within 
a different sample, researchers found a high 
correlation between mothers’ negativity di -
rected toward one identical twin adolescent 
and antisocial behavior shown by the other 
identical twin adolescent ( r = .62); the same 
correlation was much lower for fraternal 
twins ( r = .27) and approached zero ( r = .06) 
for genetically unrelated stepsiblings (Reiss, 
Neiderhiser, Hetherington, & Plomin, 2000; 
Reiss, 2005). Likewise, children with lower 
effortful control assessed at age 10 also had 
greater decreases  in parental monitoring 
from ages 10 to 16, which suggests that par -
ents may become tired of trying to control 
their child’s dysregulated tendencies and, 
as a result, stop trying to monitor or regu -
late their child’s behavior and whereabouts 
(Atherton et al., 2020). These studies ex -
emplify strong evidence that the same set of 
genetic predispositions influence children’s 
antisocial behavior and provoke their par -
ents’ negative behavior, leading to increased 
adolescent antisocial behavior over time. 
Consistent with this work, parent-  reported 
child callous–  unemotional traits predict 
changes over time in parent-  reported incon -
sistent discipline, punishment, and parental 
involvement (Hawes, Dadds, Frost, & Hask -
ing, 2011). Williams, Ciarrochi, and Heaven 
(2012) found that adolescent self-  reported 
psychological flexibility predicted decreases 
in authoritarian parenting and increases in 
authoritative parenting (both reported by 
the adolescent). In summary, the hypothesis 
that offspring personality predicts changes 
in parenting behavior has considerable sup -
port (Hawes et al., 2011; Lengua & Kovacs, A EF
Parent
Personal ityParent
Behavi orOffspring
Personal ity
Offspring
Outcomes
FIGURE 16.1. Pathways linking parenting and personality.