When personal becomes relational: A meta-analysis and narrative review on personality traits and children's affective relationships with adults

Abstract

In this meta-analysis and narrative review, we investigated whether personality traits of children and adults (i.e., parents and teachers), as well as personality similarity, were associated with the affective quality of dyadic adult–child relationships. We conducted a systematic literature search following PRISMA guidelines. By performing a quantitative meta-analysis (k = 39), we examined the associations of children's and parents' personality traits with parent–child relationship quality. Due to a limited number of available studies, associations between personality traits and teacher–child relationships (k = 8) and between personality similarity and adult–child relationships (k = 4) were explored through a narrative review. The meta-analytic findings indicated that children's agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness were positively associated with positive parent–child relationships (e.g., warmth) and negatively associated with negative parent–child relationships (e.g., conflict). In contrast, children's neuroticism was negatively associated with positive parent–child relationships and positively associated with negative parent–child relationships. Comparable patterns were found for parents' personality traits; however, parents' openness was not significantly associated with either positive or negative parent–child relationships. Furthermore, the narrative review suggested that personality traits of both children and teachers may be associated with teacher–child relationships, especially for relational positivity. Finally, preliminary evidence indicated that personality similarity appeared to be positively associated with positive adult–child relationships. Although the results we found were small to medium in magnitude, these findings suggest that focusing on personality may be a promising way to better understand children's affective relationships with adults in various contexts (e.g., family, school).