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Transhistorical variations in personality and their association with experiences of parental rearing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

M. Lundberg
Affiliation:
Umeå University, Department of Psychiatry and WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Umeå
C. Perris*
Affiliation:
Umeå University, Department of Psychiatry and WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Umeå Swedish Institute for Cognitive Psychotherapy, Stockholm, Sweden
P. Schlette
Affiliation:
Umeå University, Department of Psychiatry and WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Umeå
R. Adolfsson
Affiliation:
Umeå University, Department of Psychiatry and WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Umeå
*
*Correspondence and reprints: Swedish Institute for Cognitive Psychotherapy Dalagatan 9A, Box 641 S-113 82 Stockholm, Sweden
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Summary

A population sample comprised of 765 subjects (367 males and 398 females), in the age range of 15-81 years, completed the EMBU, a reliable questionnaire aimed at assessing experiences of parental rearing, and the TCI, a self-report questionnaire aimed at assessing dimensions of temperament and character. The study had three main aims: 1) to verify, on a larger scale, previous findings suggesting the occurrence of significant associations between experiences of parental rearing and aspects of temperament and character, 2) to assess possible variations in temperament and character in cohorts of subjects who have grown up in different historical epochs, and 3) to investigate to what extent transgenerational differences in parental rearing are detectable in different associations with various dimensions of personality. Several, albeit small, significant and meaningful associations between experiences of parental rearing and both temperament and character dimensions have been found, adding support to the robustness of previously reported results obtained in an independent smaller series. Also, several significant differences among subjects in different age groups have been found, both concerning temperament variables and character dimensions. Finally, the results show that associations between experiences of parental rearing and dimensions of temperament and character are most pronounced in subjects belonging to the youngest cohort and almost nil in the cohort comprising the oldest subjects.

Type
Original article
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 1999

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