Rzhanova I.E. Neuroticism and parental control in two-child families

Research into neuroticism and its sources of formation in the family is a relevant topic, since high rates of this psychological characteristic are associated with the development of a number of serious problems, both in social interaction and in the field of physical and mental health. Parental neuroticism has a negative impact on the psychological well-being of children at various age stages. High levels of parental neuroticism are associated with low warmth and acceptance, parental inconsistency, strictness and control.

The study involved 278 complete two-child families, a total of 1,112 people. The Eysenck EPI questionnaire was used to diagnose neuroticism. Parent-child relationships were assessed using the Parent-Child Interaction questionnaire, which has forms for parents and children. To analyze the data, the actor-partner interdependence model was used, which tests the relationship between the participants of the dyad according to specified indicators. Actor-partner interdependence models were constructed for the neuroticism indices of parents and siblings, in which parental control was used as a mediator variable.

The intra-pair similarity in neuroticism indices in different family dyads is low, and only in the mother-younger sibling pair does it reach the level of statistical significance. A relatively high agreement between spouses in the manifestation of controlling behavior towards children was revealed. An analysis of correlations between neuroticism and parental control revealed that the greatest relationship is observed when studying maternal parameters: neuroticism is positively associated with control. The neuroticism of siblings are positively correlated with perceived negative control.

Conclusions: a significant role of maternal characteristics in the formation of neuroticism in children was revealed. Maternal neuroticism is more often associated with children's personality traits than paternal neuroticism, both directly and indirectly, through parental control. In this case, maternal influences are realized not only as actor effects, but also as partner effects, through impacts on the father's characteristics.

Key words: neuroticism, parental control, two-child families, siblings, actor-partner modeling

For citation: Rzhanova, I.E. (2024). Neuroticism and parental control in two-child families. New Psychological Research, No. 4, 91–112. DOI: 10.51217/npsyresearch_2024_04_04_04

Acknowledgment

The article was prepared within a state task, project FNRE-2024-0016 «Psychological effects of digitalization of the educational environment: opportunities for cognitive and personal development and socialization risks».