title: The influences of family environment on personality traits.
abstract: In order to clarify the influences of family environment on the development of personality traits, 150 children (104 males and 46 females, mean age 13.2 +/- 2.4 years) who had been interviewed at the Child Guidance Clinic in Osaka were investigated. From 13 behavioral characteristics (activity, talkativeness, sociability, social skills, rule-keeping, will, aggression, emotional control, imagination, anxiety, maturity, intelligence, and neuroticism), factor analysis identified three personality traits: extraversion, maturity, and intellect. The effects of family environment (maternal and paternal participation in child rearing before and after 4years of age, child-rearing style, parental relationship, sibling relationship, number of siblings, birth order, and socioeconomic status) on these personality traits were examined based on a structural equation model. The results found, first, that extraversion was negatively associated with overprotection/interference and with maternal participation in child rearing. Maturity correlated with high socioeconomic status, appropriate child-rearing style, and paternal participation in child rearing. Intellect was related to high socioeconomic status and maternal participation in child rearing. Second, path analysis with selected variables revealed that 8% of variance in extraversion, 14% in maturity, and 10% in intellect was due to family environment. Third, children with high introversion or high intellect had stronger influences from family environment than did those with high extraversion or low intellect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience (Psychiatry), Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka, Japan. nakao@psy.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakao
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Takaishi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tatsuta
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iwase
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yorifuji
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takeda
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression; D001722:Birth Order; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D004644:Emotions; D004777:Environment; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010551:Personality; D012919:Social Behavior; D012923:Social Class; D013694:Temperament