Transhistorical variations in personality and their association with experiences of parental rearing

A population sample comprised of 765 subjects (367 males and 398 females), in the age range of 15-81 years, completed the EMBU, a reliable questionnai re aimed at assessing experiences of parental rearing, and the TCI, a self- report questionnaire aimed at assessing dimensions of temperament and chara cter. The study had three main aims: 1) to verify, on a larger scale, previ ous findings suggesting the occurrence of significant associations between experiences of parental rearing and aspects of temperament and character, 2 ) to assess possible variations in temperament and character in cohorts of subjects who have grown up in different historical epochs, and 3) to invest igate to what extent transgenerational differences in parental rearing are detectable in different associations with various dimensions of personality . Several, albeit small, significant and meaningful associations between ex periences of parental rearing and both temperament and character dimensions have been found, adding support to the robustness of previously reported r esults obtained in an independent smaller series. Also, several significant differences among subjects in different age groups have been found, both c oncerning temperament variables and character dimensions. Finally, the resu lts show that associations between experiences of parental rearing and dime nsions of temperament and character are most pronounced in subjects belongi ng to the youngest cohort and almost nit in the cohort comprising the oldes t subjects. (C) 1999 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.