Correlates of parents' perceptions of behavioral problems in their young children

The purpose of this study was to assess whether personality traits ("big five" factors), marital quality (ineffective arguing and marital commitment), and social support (from family and friends) were linked to the perceived frequency of behavior problems in young children (30 boys, 41 girls, child's mean age = 4.20 years) equivalently for mothers and for fathers. Participants were 71 pairs of parents who provided information about marital quality, social support, and child behavior problems over as many as three annual assessments. Couple-level analyses using latent variables indicated that although significant links occurred more frequently for fathers than for mothers, the strength of these links generally did not differ between parents. For both parents, only personality traits-especially neuroticism-accounted for unique variance in child behavior ratings. Findings indicate that personality traits provide one lens through which fathers and mothers appraise the nature of their children's behavior. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.