Dysfunctional parenting may lead to adult problems through personality traits like low conscientiousness

Adults who experienced dysfunctional parenting in childhood may struggle more with daily functioning later in life, and this could be partly due to the way those early experiences shape their personality. A new study published in Psychological Reports found that individuals who reported neglectful, abusive, or overly controlling parenting styles in their upbringing were more likely to experience current impairments in areas such as work, relationships, and emotional well-being. Interestingly, this connection seemed to be linked not to sadistic or psychopathic traits, as initially expected, but to lower levels of conscientiousness—a basic personality trait that includes being organized, responsible, and self-disciplined.

Previous research has shown that parenting plays an important role in emotional development. Children who grow up with inconsistent, harsh, or neglectful parenting often face emotional challenges later in life, including difficulties in regulating emotions, forming close relationships, and maintaining positive self-esteem. These difficulties can contribute to what psychologists call “functional impairment”—struggles with everyday tasks and responsibilities.

But why does this happen? One possibility is that dysfunctional parenting shapes a child’s personality in lasting ways. Past research has linked these types of parenting styles to antisocial traits such as psychopathy and sadism. These traits are associated with impulsivity, aggression, and lack of empathy, which can interfere with healthy adult functioning. However, it remained unclear whether these more extreme traits played a unique role or whether the link could be better explained by broader personality traits.

“It is well-known that dysfunctional parenting styles in childhood can have a negative impact on overall functioning that lasts into adulthood. However, the specific processes that indirectly contribute to this relationship have remained unclear,” explained study authors Charlotte Kinrade (an assistant professor at Kennesaw State University) and Peter J. Castagna (an assistant professor at the University of Alabama).

“Put differently, we were interested in how a third variable partially explains the relation been experiencing negative parenting styles and everyday problems people experience as adults. Prior research has hinted that personality traits, like psychopathy or sadism, could be an important factor to consider, as they are linked to being exposed to maladaptive parenting styles and current impairment as an adult.”

“However, it was also important to consider broader basic personality characteristics, such as agreeableness and conscientiousness, that have considerable overlap with psychopathy and sadism. That way, we would have a better understanding as to whether the potential findings are specific to psychopathy/sadism or if they are more broadly reflective of low agreeableness and low conscientiousness.”

The researchers recruited 446 adults living in the United States through an online platform called Prolific. Participants were diverse in age (average age of 46), gender (just over half were female), education, and income. All participants completed a battery of questionnaires designed to measure their personality, perceptions of their upbringing, and current functioning in everyday life.

To assess dysfunctional parenting, participants answered questions about how their parents behaved toward them before the age of 16. These included items on parental indifference (such as being emotionally unavailable), abuse (physical, verbal, or sexual), and overcontrol (excessive protection or restriction of autonomy). Each of these parenting styles was measured separately for mothers and fathers.

The researchers also measured psychopathy and sadism, using established self-report questionnaires. In addition, they assessed two basic personality traits—agreeableness and conscientiousness—using a widely used personality inventory. Functional impairment was measured by asking participants how often they experienced specific problems in the past month, such as trouble with work, relationships, and emotional regulation.

The results suggested that people who perceived their parents as neglectful, abusive, or overly controlling were more likely to report having difficulties functioning in adulthood. In the initial models, these links were explained in part by higher levels of psychopathy—but not sadism. That is, individuals who experienced dysfunctional parenting in childhood were more likely to score higher on psychopathy, which in turn was associated with more functional impairment in adulthood.

However, when the researchers included conscientiousness and agreeableness in their models, the picture changed. The effects of psychopathy disappeared, and the link between dysfunctional parenting and adult impairment was instead explained by low conscientiousness. This means that people who had more negative parenting experiences were also more likely to score lower on conscientiousness, which was then linked to greater functional problems.

“We were surprised that low conscientiousness was the personality construct to partially bridge the gap between the experience of dysfunctional parenting in childhood and present-day functional impairment, rather than psychopathy or sadism,” Kinrade and Castagna told PsyPost. “Low conscientiousness manifests as behavioral tendencies like failing to plan ahead and impulsivity, so it is possible that these aspects of low conscientiousness more strongly contribute to general impairment in adulthood rather than the broader antagonistic behavioral tendencies that are associated with psychopathy and sadism.”

In particular, the study found that maternal parenting had stronger associations with adult outcomes than paternal parenting, especially when it came to maternal indifference, abuse, and overcontrol. These maternal styles were more consistently linked to low conscientiousness and, through it, to higher levels of adult impairment.

Importantly, these effects were modest in size, but they still had practical significance. Even small differences in conscientiousness translated into noticeable differences in how much people struggled with daily functioning. For example, a small shift in conscientiousness could lead to a 20 percent increase in reported problems in everyday life. The researchers also found that these patterns held across different ages and were not limited to younger participants.

“Practically, society bears the financial burden of an impaired populous, with increased spending on healthcare, unemployment/welfare, and incarceration. Our work suggests that investing in parenting practices might mitigate downstream effects on functional impairment directly and through its links with personality indirectly. Education to prevent dysfunctional parenting could provide an avenue for reducing costs and could foster a more well-adjusted population.”

While the study provides valuable insights, it also has some limitations. First, the researchers used a cross-sectional design, which means that all data were collected at one time point. This makes it difficult to know for sure whether childhood experiences caused changes in personality or functioning, or whether other unmeasured factors were involved. Longitudinal studies that follow people over time are needed to clarify these relationships.

Second, all measures relied on self-report. Although the tools used are well-validated, people’s memories of their childhood or perceptions of their own personality may not always be accurate. Incorporating reports from others or using behavioral measures in future studies could strengthen the conclusions.

“Our study is based on people’s memories of their childhoods, which may not always be entirely accurate — people remember the past through their current emotional lens,” Kinrade and Castagna explained. “Also, because the study was cross-sectional, causal inferences should not be inferred. Our study should not be interpreted as saying that dysfunctional parenting causes decreased conscientiousness, for example, which would require a longitudinal design.”

The authors see this study as an important first step in understanding how early life experiences shape adult outcomes through personality. They are especially interested in exploring what might help people cope with or overcome the effects of dysfunctional parenting. Future research might look at factors that could reduce the likelihood of later functional problems.

“We are also interested in what aspects may buffer against the long-term negative effects of dysfunctional parenting, such as attachment and coping,” the researchers said. “We felt like the current study was an important initial step towards understanding these complex relationships.”

The study, “The Lasting Effects of Bad Parenting: Effects of Dysfunctional Parenting on Functional Impairment Through Antisocial Personality,” was authored by Charlotte Kinrade, William Hart, and Peter J. Castagna.