In plain language
Psychoticism is a personality dimension linked to being cold, impulsive, unempathic and prone to antisocial and delinquent behaviour. While researchers had studied its genetic and biological roots, almost nothing was known about whether the social environment — in particular, how parents raise their children — shapes it. This study, part of the Wollongong Youth Study, asked whether adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ style predicted changes in psychoticism over time.
The researchers tracked 660 Australian high school students (modal age 12) over 12 months. At the start, students rated both parents on three classic parenting styles: permissive (warm but non-controlling), authoritarian (controlling but detached), and authoritative (firm and demanding, yet warm and responsive). Psychoticism was measured at both time points, so the analyses could test whether parenting predicted changes in personality rather than just a snapshot association.
Structural equation modelling showed that only one parenting style mattered: adolescents who saw their parents as authoritative showed lower psychoticism a year later, even after accounting for their initial psychoticism levels. This protective effect was significant for boys but not girls. Permissive and authoritarian parenting did not predict changes in psychoticism. The findings suggest that warm-but-firm parenting — close supervision combined with warmth and open communication — may help steer children, especially boys, away from the antisocial trajectory associated with high psychoticism.
Key findings
- 660 high school students (322 boys, 332 girls; modal age 12) were tracked over 12 months, successfully matching 84.1% of the original sample across the two waves.
- Perceptions of parental authoritativeness correlated with lower psychoticism at both time points — a large effect for boys and a small effect for girls.
- Boys who saw their parents as permissive tended to have higher psychoticism scores at both time points; authoritarian parenting showed no significant correlations.
- In structural equation models controlling for Time 1 psychoticism, authoritativeness was the only parenting style that significantly predicted Time 2 psychoticism.
- The prospective effect of authoritativeness held for boys (path = −.19) but not girls (.06), a significant gender difference.
- The study provides some of the first psychosocial (rather than genetic or biological) evidence on the development of Eysenckian psychoticism in youth.
How to cite
APA
Heaven, P. C. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2006). Perceptions of parental styles and Eysenckian psychoticism in youth: A prospective analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 41, 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.12.011
BibTeX
@article{heaven2006perceptions,
author = {Heaven, Patrick C. L. and Ciarrochi, Joseph},
title = {Perceptions of parental styles and Eysenckian psychoticism in youth: A prospective analysis},
journal = {Personality and Individual Differences},
year = {2006},
volume = {41},
pages = {61--70},
doi = {10.1016/j.paid.2005.12.011}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.