Parental Marital Conflict in Childhood<br />and Influence on Adult Sibling Relationships

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the separate effects of parental marital disharmony and family intactness on the adult sibling relationship. The sample included 182 men and women between the ages of 22 and 58. The results indicated that perceptions of parental marital disharmony in childhood are related more than family intactness to sibling conflict and warmth. Participants who reported lower self-esteem, perceived their parents' marriage as more disharmonious than participants who reported higher self-esteem. Moreover, parental marital disharmony was the only significant predictor of diminished self-esteem. Participants were asked to answer questions which involved recalling memories from their childhood, specifically about their sibling relationship and perceptions of their parents' relationships. For siblings who perceived less parental affection in childhood as compared to their sibling, more rivalrous feelings were reported in their adult sibling relationship. These findings highlight the important implications for understanding an individual's perception of marital discord and are discussed in relation to family intactness, self-esteem, and sibling conflict and warmth between siblings in adulthood.