Child Temperament and Mother's Personality as a Predictors of Maternal Relation to Child

This article investigates the role of child temperament and mother's personality in maternal relation to child. Basing on theoretical ideas and empirical evidences we proposed that parental personality is associated with parenting directly but this association also interacts with child temperament. Mother's (N=110) completed EPI to assess extraversion and neuroticism. Mother's relation to child was assessed with the Parent-child interaction questionnaire on five subscales: Positive relation to child, Control, Mildness, Consistency and Confidence. Child temperament was rated by mothers using the Carey Temperament Questionnaire. According to the results obtained a mother's neuroticism and extraversion don't predict the relation to child. Child temperament plays a more important role: Adaptability and Quality of mood are predictors for most mother's relations to child characteristics. Together Threshold of responsiveness and Distractibility predict mother's Control. Results of this study are generally consistent with those outlining the influence of infant temperament on parent relation to child.