Parental educational attainment and adult offspring personality: An intergenerational life span approach to the origin of adult personality traits.

ABSTRACT: Why do some individuals have more self-control or are more vulnerable to stress than others? Where do these basic personality traits come from? Although a fundamental question in personality, more is known about how traits are related to important life outcomes than their developmental origins. The present research took an intergenerational life span approach to address whether a significant aspect of the childhood environment-parental educational attainment-was associated with offspring personality traits in adulthood. We tested the association between parents' educational levels and adult offspring personality traits in 7 samples (overall age range 14-95) and meta-analytically combined the results (total N > 60,000). Parents with more years of education had children who were more open, e

SUBMITTER: Sutin AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5472504 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature