The key facts

  • The analysis included 520 US residents: 368 parents and 152 adult children from a support community for people with family estrangement
  • Each additional point of parental extraversion was associated with a 79% increase in the odds of estrangement (odds ratio)
  • Among adult children, the link involved openness to new experience: higher scores were accompanied by lower odds of a cutoff

What the researchers found

Among parents whose relationships with their adult children were already strained, higher extraversion was associated with a greater likelihood of a complete cutoff of contact. Researchers at Adler University and colleagues came to this conclusion; the study was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, Gazeta.Ru reports on it.

How the study was conducted

The analysis included 520 US residents: 368 parents and 152 adult children. Participants were recruited through an online support community for people dealing with family estrangement. The parents and children belonged to different families, so the researchers did not match the responses of both sides of the same conflict. Each participant completed a personality questionnaire and reported how often they met and communicated with the relative. Those whose meetings and communication occurred no more than once a year or not at all were placed in the estrangement group.

What exactly was discovered

After accounting for demographic characteristics, each additional point of parental extraversion was associated with a 79% increase in the odds of estrangement. Importantly, this is an odds ratio, not a 79 percentage-point increase in individual risk. Upon closer analysis, the link emerged with enthusiasm and emotional expressiveness, but not with assertiveness. Among adult children, openness to new experience looked different: higher scores on it were accompanied by lower odds of a communication cutoff.

How to read these data

The sample was recruited from within a community where people had already experienced estrangement, so the results describe this particular group rather than all families in general. Moreover, the parents and children were not pairs from the same families, meaning this is a correlation between personality traits and the state of the relationship, not a verified cause-and-effect link. According to the publication, the authors did not discuss these limitations in their summary.