Parental Sensitivity Predicted by Parent Personality and Infant Temperament

The determinants of parenting model (Belsky, 1984) suggests that there are intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to parenting. Previous research has suggested that aspects of parent personality, such as neuroticism and extraversion, were predictive of parenting, but this research has provided conflicting results on the effect personality has on parenting. Furthermore, infant temperament has also found to be influential on parenting, but has also generated mixed results concerning how negative reactivity influences parenting. In regard to both variables, research on fathers is severely lacking. This study examined the direct effects of parent personality on parenting through the BIS/BAS model. Additionally, the direct effects of infant temperament on parenting were assessed. The interaction between these two factors was also examined as a predictor of sensitivity. Using a portion of a sample from an ongoing longitudinal study (n = 41), findings supported differential determinants of parenting for mothers and fathers, such that maternal sensitivity was influenced by infant temperament and paternal sensitivity was influenced by the interaction of parent personality and infant temperament