Abstract
In this paper, we discuss the relationships of personalities between students, aged from 12 to 23, and their important agents of socialization: their parents. We use Japanese family data in the 1980's. These data were collected by three independent surveys (father, mother and child) which were conducted as a part of the study of “Work and Personality”. The data were processed in one data set in order to analyze the triadic relationships.
We focus on four social attitudes and the psychological functioning of each of the three jamily members. The linear structural equation models (LISREL) are applied to confirm our hypotheses and to measure the correlations between the same aspects of each member's personality. We various patterns in triadic relationships. Correlation is high between mother and child in “authoritarian conservatism” and between father and child in “ideational flexibility”. Correlation between father and mother is fairly high in “self-esteem” and in “ideational flexibility”. We find, though, little or no correlation among the three family members in other attitude: “anxiety”. This suggests, contrary to general assumptions, that the influences of parents vary according to personality domain.
