Relationship Between Parenting Styles and Introversion-Extroversion Among Males and Females of Various Birth Orders

The relationship between parenting styles (authoritarianism, authoritativeness, and permissiveness) and extraversion was studied among males and females of various birth orders. Participants were 91 first, second, and third year college students (n = 35 males, n = 56 females). Fifty participants were first-born or only children, 15 were middle-born children, and 26 were youngest children. The measures used included the Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1968). Correlational analysis revealed few significant results. Among first-born males, extraversion was significantly related to father\u27s permissiveness (u1 = -.506, Q \u3c .05), and to mother\u27s permissiveness (D1 = -.548, Q \u3c .01). Mother\u27s authoritativeness was significantly related to extraversion among first born females (r25 = .397, Q \u3c .05). Among last-born females, father\u27s authoritativeness and extraversion were significantly related (r17 = .592, Q \u3c .01). No other findings were significant. It was concluded that some other factor, such as divorce or inclusion of stepsiblings might be related to the variables studied. It was also concluded that, while this study provides insight into the relationships between parenting styles, birth order, sex and extraversion, more research is needed to determine the relationships between these variables