PARENTING STYLES, PERSONALITY TRAITS AND FAMILY COHESION AMONG ADULTS

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find out the relationship of Parenting Styles, Personality Traits and Family Cohesion among Adults. Sample compromised of (N=408) adults (Male= 155, female = 253) with age range of 18-32 years and data was collected from different setting of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. For this study, correlational research design was used convenient sampling technique was employed for data collection. Parenting Style was measured by Perceived Parenting Style Scale (Divya & Manikandan, 2013), Personality Traits was measured by The Big five Inventory 2 short form scale (Oliver et al., 2017) and Family Cohesion was measured by The FACES III (David & Olson, 1979). Data was analyzed using SPSS-27 that Descriptive Statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Independent Sample t-test, NOVA Analysis and multiple linear regressions between Family cohesion. Results showed authoritarian and permissive parenting is negatively correlated with family cohesion, indicating that these styles may contribute to weaker family ties and less social interaction. Personality traits like extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are positively linked to family cohesion, suggesting that individuals who are outgoing, agreeable, and responsible tend to create stronger familial bonds. Interestingly, neuroticism, often seen as a negative trait, is also negatively correlated with family cohesion, which might reflect increased emotional involvement in family dynamics. However, openness to experience shows no significant relationship with family cohesion, implying that this trait does not strongly influence family relationships. The results of regression analysis reveal that the Authoritative parenting style has a significant positive association with the dependent variable (B = 0.335, p < 0.001), while the Authoritarian style shows a significant negative association (B = -0.188, p = 0.002). The Permissive style, however, is not significantly associated (B = 0.026, p = 0.649). Among personality traits, Conscientiousness (B = 0.613, p < 0.001) and Neuroticism (B = 0.419, p = 0.004) are significant positive predictors, whereas Extraversion (B = 0.227, p = 0.138), Agreeableness (B = 0.169, p = 0.283), and Openness to Experience (B = -0.145, p = 0.215) are not significantly associated. Women exhibit higher authoritative parenting, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, and report stronger family bonds. Nuclear families demonstrate higher authoritative parenting and personality traits compared to joint families.