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Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Perceived parental affectionless control is associated with high neuroticism
Nana Takahashi1, Akihito Suzuki1, Yoshihiko Matsumoto1
1Department 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.
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