Five-Factor Personality Dimensions Mediated the Relationship between Parents’ Parenting Style Differences and Mental Health among Medical University Students

Shuxin Yao, Meixia Xu and Long Sun ()
Additional contact information
Shuxin Yao: School of Public Policy and Management (School of Emergency Management), China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
Meixia Xu: Department of Current Situation and Policy, School of Marxism, Shandong Women’s University, Jinan 250300, China
Long Sun: Centre for Health Management and Policy Research, School of Public Health, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: Background: Previous studies have identified the relationships between parental parenting style, personality, and mental health. However, the interactive influences between mother’s and father’s parenting styles on personality have been examined less often. To fill the gaps, the first aim of this study was to build the relationships between parental parenting style differences (PDs) and five-factor personality dimensions. The second aim was to test the mediating effect of five-factor personality dimensions on the relationships between parental parenting style differences and mental health. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted among medical university students, and 2583 valid participants were analyzed. Mental health was measured by the Kessler-10 scale. The Chinese Big Five Personality Inventory brief version (CBF-PI-B) was used to access five-factor personality dimensions. PD was calculated by the short form of Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran. Linear regressions were conducted to analyze the associations between PD and five-factor personality dimensions. The SPSS macros program (PROCESS v3.3) was performed to test the mediating effect of five-factor personality dimensions on the associations between PD and mental health. Results: Linear regressions found that worse mental health was positively associated with PD (β = 0.15, p < 0.001), higher neuroticism (β = 0.61, p < 0.001), lower conscientiousness (β = −0.11, p < 0.001), lower agreeableness (β = −0.10, p < 0.01), and lower openness (β = −0.05, p < 0.05). The results also supported that PD was positively associated with lower conscientiousness (β = −0.15, p < 0.01), lower agreeableness (β = −0.09, p < 0.001), lower openness (β = −0.15, p < 0.001), and lower extraversion (β = −0.08, p < 0.001), respectively. The mediating effect of agreeableness or openness was supported for the relationships between PD and mental health. Conclusion: These findings remind us of the importance of consistent parenting styles between mother and father, and they also can be translated into practices to improve mental health among medical university students.

Keywords: five-factor personality dimensions; parenting style; mental health; medical university students (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4908/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/6/4908/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:6:p:4908-:d:1093602

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().