354 III. DEvELOPMENT
agreeableness. This socialization process is 
probably most effective when the parenting 
behaviors are aligned with the child’s inher -
ent propensities.
Consistent with this reasoning, many re -
searchers find significant correlations be -
tween parenting and offspring personality. 
However, there are three different ways to 
explain this basic correlation: socialization, 
passive gene–  environment correlation, and 
evocation. In addition to the hypothesized 
socialization effects of parenting, a portion 
of the correlation between parent behavior 
and offspring traits is due to shared genetic 
propensities (i.e., Kevin’s propensity to be 
responsible may be, in part, due to a genet -
ic inheritance he receives from his parents; 
Ayoub et al., 2019). The ability of children 
to evoke parenting responses (Avinun & 
Knafo, 2013) is an additional reason why 
correlations between parent behavior and 
offspring traits are difficult to interpret. 
However, studies that indicate parenting 
predicts changes  in offspring personality 
(e.g., Halverson & Deal, 2001; Hipwell et 
al., 2008; Jaffari-  Bimmel, Juffer, Van IJzen -
doorn, Bakermans-  Kranenburg, & Mooi -
jaart, 2006) provide more compelling evi -
dence, because shared genetic or evocative 
effects are less likely to cause a prospective 
prediction from parenting to change over 
time in offspring traits. Research examin -
ing the effects of a parenting intervention 
on personality change provides the strongest 
evidence that parenting behaviors actually 
cause personality change, independent of 
shared genes or child evocation, but there 
are few studies of this kind. Consequently, 
in the following review, we focus on evi -
dence of parent behavior predicting change 
over time  in offspring personality. We in -
clude studies in which both parenting be -
havior and offspring personality are report -
ed by the same informant, with the caveat 
that shared method variance renders those 
results less interpretable than findings based 
on independent assessments of parenting be -
havior and offspring traits.
Parenting Effects on  Personality  Traits
In this section, we do not distinguish be -
tween temperament and personality traits 
because of their high level of conceptual and empirical overlap (e.g., Shiner & DeYoung, 
2013; Zentner & Bates, 2008). The tem -
peramental traits of effortful control, nega -
tive emotionality, and positive emotionality 
typically map onto the Big Five traits of con -
scientiousness, neuroticism, and extraver -
sion/agreeableness in adolescence and adult -
hood (Soto & Tackett, 2015). Researchers 
have also found evidence for the “Little 
Five” (John, Caspi, Robins, Moffitt, & 
Stouthamer-  Loeber, 1994) and “Little Six” 
(Soto & John, 2014; Soto, 2016) dimensions 
of personality in childhood and adolescence, 
which converge with both temperament and 
personality traditions.
Parenting is a biologically and culturally 
reinforced mechanism for socialization. Dig -
man (1997) characterized three of the Big 
Five (i.e., conscientiousness, emotional sta -
bility (low neuroticism), and agreeableness) 
as representing the end goals of successful 
socialization. Not surprisingly, these three 
personality domains have received consider -
able attention in both the socialization and 
personality development literatures. We first 
review the hypothesized effects of parenting 
on conscientiousness, emotional stability, 
and agreeableness (or related traits), then 
briefly discuss the few studies that have ex -
amined how parenting might influence ex -
traversion and openness to experience (or 
related traits).
Of the Big Five domains, perhaps the 
most widely studied in the parenting litera -
ture is conscientiousness and related traits 
(e.g., self-  regulation, effortful control, and 
self- control). Observed maternal sensitivity 
predicts decreases in a composite of child re -
activity, restlessness, and aggression (Jaffari- 
Bimmel et al., 2006). Parental warmth pre -
dicts relative increases in childhood effortful 
control (Klein et al., 2018) and adolescent 
conscientiousness (Schofield et al., 2012), 
after accounting for prior levels. Additional -
ly, a general measure of “positive” parenting 
predicts increases in child task persistence 
(Halverson & Deal, 2001). On the other 
hand, parent-  reported punitive responses to 
child misbehavior predict decreases in con -
scientiousness (Van den Akker, Dekovi ć, 
Asscher, & Prinzie, 2014). Parental hostil -
ity, intrusiveness, and impatience predict 
ego overcontrol  among daughters, whereas 
parental hostility, frustration, competitive -