The Big Five Personality Traits as Determinants of Parental Behavior in Fathers of Older Adolescents

Ljiljana Bogdanović, Đenita Tuce

Abstract


The aim of this study was to examine the role of the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) in explaining specific aspects of parental behavior (emotionality, psychological control, and behavioral control) in fathers of older adolescets. The study included 130 fathers of students in the second, third, fourth, and fifth years of study from several departments of the Faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo. The following measurement instruments were used: General Data Questionnaire, Big Five Inventory (BFI-44), and Parents’ Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (PRPBI-30). Results from multiple regression analyses indicate that the set of predictor variables accounts for 23% of the total variance of emotionality, 17% of the total variance of psychological control, and 9% of the total variance of behavioral control. Agreeableness emerged as a significant predictor of emotionality, neuroticism as a significant predictor of psychological control, and openness to experience as a significant predictor of behavioral control. Overall, the findings suggest that fathers higher in agreeableness exhibit higher levels of emotionality toward child, fathers higher in neuroticism exhibit higher levels of psychological control toward child, and fathers higher in openness to experience exhibit lower levels of behavioral control toward child. The obtained results expand the existing body of empirical findings in this field of research and contribute to a deeper understanding of the relative contributions of the Big Five personality traits in explaining different aspects of parental behavior in fathers.

Keywords


fathers; Big Five personality traits; parental behavior; emotionality; psychological control; behavioral control

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.51558/2490-3647.2026.11.1.867

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