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The Importance of Personality and Parental Styles on Optimism inAdolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2014

Cristian Zanon*
Affiliation:
Universidade São Francisco (Brazil)
Micheline Roat Bastianello
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Juliana Cerentini Pacico
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
Claudio Simon Hutz
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
*
*Correspondence concerning this articleshould be addressed to Cristian Zanon. Universidade São Francisco.Rua Alexandre Rodrigues Barbosa, 45. Centro, Itatiba - SP Federal (Brazil).+55–5133085246. E-mail: crstn.zan@gmail.com

Abstract

Some studies have suggested that personality factors are important to optimismdevelopment. Others have emphasized that family relations are relevant variablesto optimism. This study aimed to evaluate the importance of parenting styles tooptimism controlling for the variance accounted for by personality factors.Participants were 344 Brazilian high school students (44% male) with mean age of16.2 years (SD = 1) who answered personality,optimism, responsiveness and demandingness scales. Hierarchical regressionanalyses were conducted having personality factors (in the first step) andmaternal and paternal parenting styles, and demandingness and responsiveness (inthe second step) as predictive variables and optimism as the criterion.Personality factors, especially neuroticism (β= –.34, p < .01), extraversion(β = .26, p< .01) and agreeableness (β =.16, p < .01), accounted for 34% of the optimismvariance and insignificant variance was predicted exclusively by parental styles(1%). These findings suggest that personality is more important to optimismdevelopment than parental styles.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2014 

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