Elsevier

Comprehensive Psychiatry

Volume 50, Issue 1, January–February 2009, Pages 54-57
Comprehensive Psychiatry

Parental overprotection increases interpersonal sensitivity in healthy subjects

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2008.05.009Get rights and content

Abstract

The effect of parental rearing on interpersonal sensitivity was studied in 469 Japanese volunteers. Perceived parental rearing was assessed by the Parental Bonding Instrument, which consists of the factors of care and protection, and interpersonal sensitivity was measured by the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM). In male subjects, higher IPSM scores were related to higher scores of paternal protection (P < .01) and maternal protection (P < .05). In female subjects, higher IPSM scores were related to higher scores of maternal protection (P < .001). The present study suggests that in both males and females, interpersonal sensitivity is increased by high protection of the same-sex parents and that in males there is an additional effect of high maternal protection.

Introduction

Boyce and Parker [1] defined interpersonal sensitivity as undue and excessive awareness of, and sensitivity to, the behavior and feelings of others. Individuals with this personality trait are preoccupied with their interpersonal relationships, vigilant to the behavior and moods of others, overly sensitive to perceived or actual criticism or rejection, and their behavior is modified with other's expectations to minimize the risk of criticism or rejection. This personality trait has been proposed as one of the vulnerability factors to depression [2], [3], [4]. Specifically, it has been connected with postnatal depression [2], nonmelancholic depression [3], and atypical depression [4].

The Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure (IPSM) is a self-report scale with 36 items to measure interpersonal sensitivity [1]. The IPSM has 5 subscales, that is, interpersonal awareness, need for approval, separation anxiety, timidity, and fragile inner-self. Interpersonal awareness refers to vigilance to the behavior and feelings of others, need for approval assesses need to be approved by others, separation anxiety deals with anxiety about separation from significant others, timidity assesses lack of assertiveness for fear of upsetting others, and fragile inner-self identifies difficulty with self-disclosure for fear of rejection.

It has long been suggested that parenting influences personality development, but it is only recently that systematic data have been reported on this topic [5], [6], [7]. For instance, our recent study [7] has shown that parental rearing affects especially the harm avoidance and self-directedness dimensions of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) [8]. On the other hand, 4 studies have examined the effect of parental rearing on interpersonal sensitivity, with no effect [9], [10] or only a modest effect [11], [12]. It is noteworthy that only one of these studies [9] was conducted in apparently euthymic subjects. This may be responsible for the inconsistent results mentioned above because interpersonal sensitivity is influenced by depressed mood [1]. The relatively small sample sizes of these studies (n = 149-220) may also be problematic.

Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effect of parental rearing on interpersonal sensitivity in healthy subjects without any psychiatric disorder. The sample size was larger than in previous studies.

Section snippets

Methods

The subjects were 469 Japanese volunteers who were medical students or the staff of 3 hospitals. Well-trained psychiatrists confirmed by interviews that they did not have any Axis I or II disorder [4]. They had no serious physical diseases. Two hundred forty-three were males, and 226 were females. The mean ± SD of age was 29.4 ± 10.0 years.

Interpersonal sensitivity was measured by the Japanese version of the IPSM [13], whose reliability and validity have been confirmed. Originally, the IPSM

Results

The effects of care and protection scores of parents on the total and 4 subscale scores of the IPSM in male subjects are shown in Table 1, and those in female subjects are shown in Table 2. In the male subjects, higher total IPSM scores were related to higher scores of paternal protection and maternal protection. The correlation of paternal protection with the total IPSM scores was stronger than that of maternal protection. Higher scores of the interpersonal awareness subscale were related to

Discussion

We found that in the male subjects, higher IPSM scores were related to higher scores of paternal protection and maternal protection. The stronger correlation of paternal protection than maternal protection suggests that paternal protection is more influential and maternal protection is additional in the development of interpersonal sensitivity. On the other hand, in the female subjects, higher IPSM scores were related to higher scores of maternal protection alone. These results suggest that

Conclusion

The present study suggests that in both males and females, interpersonal sensitivity is increased by high protection of the same-sex parents, and that in males there is an additional effect of high maternal protection.

Acknowledgment

This study was supported by a funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

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