Mothers' and Fathers' Personality and Parenting: The Mediating Role of Sense of Competence

This prospective longitudinal study addressed 3 key questions regarding the processes of parenting in a large community sample of mothers (n = 589) and fathers (n = 518). First, the collective impact of parental Big Five personality dimensions on overreactive and warm parenting, assessed 6 years later by adolescents, was examined. Second, mediation of these associations by sense of competence in the parenting role was addressed. Third, it was explored to what extent associations were similar for mothers and fathers. Agreeableness and Extraversion were related to lower levels of overreactivity and higher levels of warmth. Sense of competence completely mediated relations between personality and overreactivity and partially mediated relations between personality and warmth. The associations were found to be similar for mothers and fathers. Overall, sense of competence was shown to be an important mechanism that can explain the link between personality and parenting. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)