The mediating role of parenting in the relation between personality and externalizing problems in Russian children

•Conscientiousness, Disagreeableness and Extraversion are related to behavior problems.•Negative parenting practices mediated the effect of personality on behavior problems.•Positive parenting doesn't predict behavior problems after accounting for personality.•The mediation model is similar for boys and girls.

The aim of the current study was to explore the extent to which parenting practices mediate the relation between child personality traits and externalizing behavior in Russian cultural context. Participants were primary caregivers of 370 primary caregivers of preschool-age children. Parenting practices was measured by the Russian version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire - Preschool Revision (APQ-PR), child personality was measured by the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version (ICID-S), externalizing problems were measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The results show that the effect of child personality on externalizing problems is partly mediated by parental discipline practices. The additional direct effects of personality traits was also found indicating that dysfunctional parenting practices do not provide a complete account of relations between child personality and externalizing problems, whereas positive parenting does not contribute to problem behavior when child personality is taken into account. The pattern of relationships between child personality, parenting practices, and externalizing behavior is similar for boys and girls. The findings are in accord with previous empirical evidence on the mediating role of parenting in the relationship between child personality and externalizing behavior found in western cultures.