The influences of family environment on personality traits

In order to clarify the influences of family environment on the development of personality traits, 150 children (104 males and 46 females, mean age 13 .2+/-2.4 years) who had been interviewed at the Child Guidance Clinic in Os aka were investigated. From 13 behavioral characteristics (activity, talkat iveness, sociability, social skills, rule-keeping, will, aggression, emotio nal control, imagination, anxiety, maturity, intelligence, and neuroticism) , factor analysis identified three personality traits: extraversion, maturi ty: and intellect. The effects of family environment (maternal and paternal participation in child rearing before and after 4 years of age, child-rear ing style, parental relationship, sibling relationship, number of siblings, birth order, and socioeconomic status) on these personality traits were ex amined based on a structural equation model. The results found, first, that extraversion was negatively associated with overprotection/interference an d with maternal participation in child rearing. Maturity correlated with hi gh socioeconomic status, appropriate child-rearing style, and paternal part icipation in child rearing. Intellect was related to high socioeconomic sta tus and maternal participation in child rearing. Second, path analysis with selected variables revealed that 8% of variance in extraversion, 14% iri m aturity, and 10% in intellect was due to family environment. Third, childre n with high introversion or high intellect had stronger influences from fam ily environment than did those with high extraversion or low intellect.