Does Parental Joblessness Matter for Children's Personality Traits?

ABSTRACT Economic insecurity in childhood may shape not only children's opportunities but also the traits that govern how they think, behave and engage with the world. Using 17 years of longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey ( n = 3792), this study examines whether sustained exposure to parental joblessness during childhood is linked to poorer personality trait outcomes in later years. We apply multilevel random‐effects models to capture cumulative exposure to joblessness prior to personality assessment. The results show that prolonged parental joblessness is associated with lower levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness to experience, while effects on emotional stability are small and statistically insignificant. These associations are not evenly distributed: they are strongest for boys, younger children and those growing up in lower‐income households. By linking parental employment histories to the formation of non‐cognitive skills, this study identifies personality development as an important, and largely overlooked, mechanism through which childhood economic disadvantage may generate long‐run inequality.