Back to Journals » Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment » Volume 13

Perceived parental affectionless control is associated with high neuroticism
Authors Takahashi N, Suzuki A, Matsumoto Y, Shirata T, Otani K
Received 16 January 2017
Accepted for publication 31 March 2017
Published 18 April 2017 Volume 2017:13 Pages 1111—1114
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S132511
Checked for plagiarism Yes
Review by Single-blind
Peer reviewers approved by Prof. Dr. Roumen Kirov
Peer reviewer comments 3
Editor who approved publication: Dr Taro Kishi
Nana Takahashi, Akihito Suzuki, Yoshihiko Matsumoto, Toshinori Shirata, Koichi Otani
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, Yamagata, Japan
Objective: Depressed patients are prone to perceive that they were exposed to affectionless control by parents. Meanwhile, high neuroticism is a well-established risk factor for developing depression. Therefore, this study examined whether perceived parental affectionless control is associated with high neuroticism.
Methods: The subjects were 664 healthy Japanese volunteers. Perceived parental care and protection were assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument. Parental rearing was categorized into either optimal parenting (high care/low protection) or three dysfunctional parenting styles including affectionless control (low care/high protection). Neuroticism was evaluated by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised.
Results: The subjects with paternal affectionless control had higher neuroticism scores than those with paternal optimal parenting. Similar tendency was observed in maternal rearing. Neuroticism scores increased in a stepwise manner with respect to the increase in the number of parents with affectionless control.
Conclusion: The present study shows that perceived parental affectionless control is associated with high neuroticism, suggesting that this parental style increases neuroticism in recipients.
Keywords: parenting, attachment, personality, vulnerability, depression, PBI, NEO PI-R
This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.
By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.