Examining Parents’ Personality within a Five Factor Model Predicting Negative and Positive Urgency in Their Adolescent Children

Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency are important subfacets of a propensity to rash action. There is currently limited research on parental antecedents of Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency. The current study investigated whether parent personality and parenting behaviors predict adolescent Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency. Data were taken from a community sample with parent personality, positive parenting behaviors, and child Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency measured at separate timepoints. Structural equation models were used to examine whether parent personality predicted adolescent Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency and whether positive parenting mediated this relationship. There was no evidence for a relationship between parent personality and children’s Negative Urgency and Positive Urgency. In addition, there was no relationship between parenting behaviors and child Negative and Positive Urgency in cross-reporter models, but child-reported parenting predicted later adolescent-reported Negative and Positive Urgency. Greater positive parenting, as perceived by children, was related to less Negative and Positive Urgency when they were adolescents. More research is needed to understand whether the current results are due to reporter bias or whether child-perceived parenting behaviors influence the development of adolescent Negative and Positive Urgency.