Temperament, character and perceived parental rearing in healthy adults: two related concepts?

The goal of this study was to test for relationships between personality according to Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and perceived parental rearing under consideration of cognitive distortions as confounding variables. Five hundred and forty healthy volunteers completed the TCI, the EMBU questionnaire (assessing perceived parental rearing), and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale. The data were subjected to Pearson correlations, partial correlations, multiple regression, and factor analyses. Gender-specific relationships were found between parental rearing and both the temperament and the character dimensions. The factor structure of the TCI remained unchanged irrespective of the inclusion of the parental rearing factors. Since environmental factors (e.g., parental rearing) influence both temperament (supposed to be genetically determined) and character dimensions, the focus should be on the interaction between both aspects through the life span.