PERSONALITY AND PARENTING - EXPLORING THE MEDIATING ROLE OF TRANSIENTMOOD AND DAILY HASSLES

In order to explore the role that transient mood and daily hassles mig ht play in mediating the impact of enduring personality on parenting, naturalistic home observations of mothering and fathering were conduct ed when firstborn sons were 15 and 21 months of age. Observationally b ased, behavioral ratings of mothering and fathering were related to th ree self-report personality scales (Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Extrav ersion), administered to parents when their children were 10 months of age, and to self-reports of transient mood (positive and negative) an d daily hassles obtained prior to each observation of family interacti on. Results indicated that (a) mothering was more consistently predict ed by personality and mood/hassles than fathering; (b) Extraversion pl ayed a larger role in predicting fathering than mothering, with the re verse being true of Agreeableness; (c) Neuroticism was the most consis tent predictor of men's and women's parenting; and (d) there was littl e support for affect-specific linkages between personality, mood/hassl es, and parenting. Finally, some evidence of mediation by transient mo od and daily hassles emerged, more consistently for mothers than fathe rs, though more strongly for fathers than mothers. These results are d iscussed in terms of the primacy of the role of parenting for men and women.