The determinants of parenting: An epidemiological, multi-informant, retrospective study

Abstract

Background. To understand the relationship between parenting and psychopathology in offspring, it is critical to clarify the determinants of parenting behaviour itself. Methods. A 16-item version of the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) was administered to parents of epidemiologically sampled adult female-female twin pairs, who reported on the parenting they provided to their twins, and to the twins themselves who reported on the parenting they and their co-twin had received (N = 828 twin families). Using a mixed-model regression, we examined the impact on parenting, as retrospectively reported by parents and twins, of six variable domains: demographic factors, family characteristics, parental symptoms and personality, parental psychopathology, child vulnerability and childhood temperament. Results. The PBI yielded three factors: warmth (W), protectiveness (P) and authoritarianism (A). W was most strongly predicted by parental personality and psychopathology, parental marital quality, and child temperament. P and A were both most strongly predicted by parental educational level and religious fundamentalism. In addition, P was predicted by neurotic/anxious traits in both parent and child. For a number of variables that predicted W, the strength of the association was stronger when twins were reporting than when parents were reporting. Conclusions. Parenting is a complex, multi-determined set of behaviours that is influenced by parental personality, psychopathology, values and marital quality and by a range of child characteristics. W appears to be strongly influenced by parental and childhood temperament and vulnerability to psychiatric illness while P and A are more strongly influenced by 'sociological' factors such as religious affiliation and educational status.