Parents' personality and their expectations about child's development

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of parent's personality on their expectations about the development of their children. It was hypothesized that Big-five personality would predict parental expectations. Data were collected from 64 mothers (XAge= 32.76, SD =6.95) and 36 fathers (XAge= 40.08, SD =8.35) using parental expectation questionnaire of child's development and Revised bangle version of Saucer's Big Five- Mini Markers. Multiple regression analysis indicated that openness to experience was the strongest predictor (β = .404, p <.05) followed by extraversion (β = -.351, p <.05). The model explained 24.1% variance of parental expectations of child's development. However, agreeableness, emotional stability and conscientiousness did not predict parental expectations. Possible explanations have been put forth to account for the findings.