Perceived Parenting in Adolescence and its Relation with Positive, Normal and Pathological Personality Traits in Adulthood

Objective: This paper aimed at analyzing the relation between perceived parenting experienced in adolescence and personality traits - positive, normal and pathological- in adulthood. Materials and methods: A sample consisted of 512 adults from general population with an average age of 40.83 years (SD = 15.05, 49.6% male, 50.4% female) was analyzed. Results: Statistically significant correlations were found mostly with the responsiveness dimension of parenting. It was positively associated with serenity, sprightliness, extraversion and agreeableness, and negatively associated with neuroticism and detachment. Besides, when analyzing parenting from a categorical approach of parenting styles, it was found that those who reported having authoritative or permissive parents had higher levels of serenity, sprightliness, extraversion and agreeableness, and lower levels of neuroticism. On the other hand, those who reported having authoritarian or negligent parents had higher levels of detachment. Finally, the study has shown that all positive personality traits and normal traits -except neuroticism-were positively associated with the presence of psychological well-being, and all pathological traits and the neuroticism trait were negatively related to the presence of psychological well-being. Conclusions: Perceived parenting can be placed within environmental factors associated with personality variability, whose role is significant but small.