Parents and their children – are there any relations between optimism levels in family?

1. Parents and their children – are there any relations between optimism levels in family? Author: Agnieszka Czerw Ph. D. Wroclaw University of Technology Wroclaw, Poland

2. Research problem • The main aim of research was to verify if parents’ optimism level is relatedto children’s optimism level • on general level • on components level • Genesis of this problem: • theory of learned optimism (M. Seligman, 1990) • research on genetic reasons of optimism (Scheier, Carver, 1993)

3. Method: OPEB Questionnaire (cognition, emotional and behavioral optimism) • Polish questionnaire OPEB measuring optimism level (Czerw, 2001) • Questionnaire contains of 37 statements • Scale of answer: from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) • 4 factors/components: • I: attitude towards achievements ( = 0.75) • II: carelessness ( = 0.80) • III: positive thinking ( = 0.87) • IV: openness( = 0.78)

4. Method • Group: • 90 families (mother, father and child) • all children were grown-up but still under the influence of their parents and without own families • students (20-21 years old) • Procedure: • students fulfilled OPEB questionnaire by themselves and they asked their parents about doing the same

5. Results • All analyses are made: • for all children • for daughters and sons separately • Correlation analyses • on optimism general level • on 4 components of optimism • Step-wise regression analyses • on optimism general level • on 4 components of optimism

6. Optimism (general level) Pearson’s correlation ** p ≤ 0,01 * p ≤ 0,05

7. „Attitude towards achievements” Pearson’s correlation ** p ≤ 0,01 * p ≤ 0,05

8. „Carelessness” Pearson’s correlation

9. „Positivethinking” Pearson’s correlation ** p ≤ 0,01 * p ≤ 0,05

10. „Openness” Pearson’s correlation ** p ≤ 0,01 * p ≤ 0,05

11. all children father’s optimism β = 0,313 child’s optimism R2 = 0,098 mother’s optimism daughters sons father’s optimism father’s optimism β = 0,378 child’s optimism child’s optimism mother’s optimism mother’s optimism R2 = 0,143 Step-wise regression analisys – optimism general level

12. Step-wise regression analisys – optimism 4 components (all children) children’s optimism attitude towards achievements (father) β = 0,413 attitude towards achievements attitude towards achievements (mother) R2 = 0,351 β = 0,304 carelessness positive thinking openness (mother) β = 0,397 openness R2 = 0,158

13. daughters sons attitude towards achievements (father) β = 0,605 R2 = 0,366 attitude towards achievements β = 0,436 R2 = 0,381 attitude towards achievements (mother) β = 0,392 carelessness positive thinking (father) β = -0,302 positive thinking (mother) R2 = 0,091 positive thinking β = - 0,391 R2 = 0,329 β = 0,327 openness (father) R2 = 0,239 openness β = - 0,391 openness (mother) β = 0,343 R2 = 0,357 β = 0,476 Step-wise regression analisys – optimism 4 components (daughters and sons)

14. Conclusions – on general optimism level • There are some relations between parents’ optimism and children’s optimism • Fathers’ optimism has stronger influence on children’s optimism than mothers’ • Fathers’ optimism has stronger influence on daughters than on sons

15. Conclusions – on 4 components of optimism • Parents influences, in strongest way, on children’s level of attitude towards achievementsand openness • Fathers’ optimism has stronger influence on optimism components of daughters than sons • Mothers’ optimism has stronger influence on optimism components of sons than daughters • Only carelessnessis not influenced by parents’ optimism • Influence of parents’ positive thinking is crossed and reversed

16. Final conclusions • Relation between parents’ and children’s optimism exists indeed, but it is not very strong • Probably there are many others factors, beyond influence of parents, forming human optimism level • Child’s gender and parent’s gender is moderator of that relation

17. Thank You for your attention