Children's Personality as a Function of Family Relations within and between Cultures

Abstract

Relations of four family characteristics to four personality characteristics were ascertained from 1,686 high school students, their parents, and teachers in 7 communities (Hong Kong, Taipei, Osaka, Berlin, Winnipeg, Phoenix, and Canberra). Analyses based on the composite sample showed generally positive correlations between (each of) member satisfaction, nurturance, and permissiveness and (each of) self-esteem, emotional well-being, and interpersonal competence; and also generally positive correlations between parental punitiveness and children's hostility. The major exceptions were that parent-reported nurturance correlated negatively with the child's self-esteem and interpersonal competence. When sex, age, parents' education, and sample differences were included as additional predictors, the proportions of predicted variance in children's personality characteristics reported by children and parents were increased by 53%, on average, and the proportions of predicted variance in children's personality characteristics reported by teachers were increased 28.7%, on average. An attempt was made to interpret cross-cultural differences in children's personalities by substituting for sample designators in the regression equations mean sample scores on family characteristics that showed significant intrasample correlations with the respective dependent variables. These resulted in elimination of almost two-thirds of the significant intersample mean differences, thus "explaining" such differences in terms of the family characteristics investigated here as intracultural determinants of personality.