Parental personality and early life ecology: a prospective cohort study from preconception to postpartum

Abstract

Personality reliably predicts life outcomes ranging from social and material resources to mental health and interpersonal capacities. However, little is known about the potential intergenerational impact of parent personality prior to offspring conception on family resources and child development across the first thousand days of life. We analysed data from the Victorian Intergenerational Health Cohort Study (665 parents, 1030 infants; est. 1992), a two-generation study with prospective assessment of preconception background factors in parental adolescence, preconception personality traits in young adulthood (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion, and openness), and multiple parental resources and infant characteristics in pregnancy and after the birth of their child. After adjusting for pre-exposure confounders, both maternal and paternal preconception personality traits were associated with numerous parental resources and attributes in pregnancy and postpartum, as well as with infant biobehavioural characteristics. Effect sizes ranged from small to moderate when considering parent personality traits as continuous exposures, and from small to large when considering personality traits as binary exposures. Young adult personality, well before offspring conception, is associated with the perinatal household social and financial context, parental mental health, parenting style and self-efficacy, and temperamental characteristics of offspring. These are pivotal aspects of early life development that ultimately predict a child's long-term health and development.

Figure 1

Correlations between parent personality traits and perinatal (a) family material and social resources, (b) parental capacities and approach, and (c) infant biobehavioural characteristics, by sex of parent (maternal n = 609, paternal n = 421), in imputed data. A agreeableness, C conscientiousness, Em emotional stability, Ex extraversion, O Openness. For all variables, high scores denote high levels of the named construct. Omitted cells indicate that those outcomes were not assessed in fathers. Numbers are Pearson’s r correlation coefficients. Colours represent strength of correlation between parent personality traits (on the horizontal axis) and perinatal outcomes (on the vertical axis), whether positive or negative.

Figure 2

Associations between maternal personality traits and perinatal (a) family material and social resources, (b) parental capacities and approach, and (c) infant biobehavioural characteristics (n = 609), in imputed data. Models adjusted for participants’ parents’ high school non-completion and separation/divorce; participants’ high school non-completion, positive parental bond with own mother and father, stressors, daily smoking, binge drinking, mental health problems, underweight, and overweight. For all variables, high scores denote high levels of the named construct. Estimates are presented as standardised betas (β, 95% confidence intervals), interpretable in units of standard deviations.

Figure 3

Associations between paternal personality traits and perinatal (a) family material and social resources, (b) parental capacities and approach, and (c) infant biobehavioural characteristics (n = 421), in imputed data. Estimates adjusted for participants’ parents’ high school non-completion and separation/divorce; participants’ high school non-completion, positive parental bond with own mother and father, stressors, daily smoking, binge drinking, mental health problems, underweight, and overweight. For all variables, high scores denote high levels of the named construct. Estimates are presented as standardised betas (β, 95% confidence intervals), interpretable in units of standard deviations.