Ratio of parental Eysenck’s personality dimensions and its relation to offspring’s personality traits

Abstract

Evolutionary theory suggests that mate choice of a phenotypically similar individual may enhance inclusive fitness of offspring. There are studies linking parental assortative mating with offspring outcome in substance abuse (alcohol abuse, smoking, obesity), in development of psychopathology and deafness. Much less attention is paid for normal psychological traits. In this article parents’ similarity in Eysenck’s personality dimensions and its influence on offspring’s traits are examined. Data of 307 two-child full families are analyzed. The obtained results show that 1) there are differences in relation between parents’ and offspring’s traits depending on the sex of a parent and birth order/age of a child; 2) there is a special influence of parents’ personality dimensions ratio and offspring’s traits. Higher extraversion is observed in children who have two parents with extraversion above average and lower neuroticism is observed in children who have mother with neuroticism below average.