Within family variability in parental negativity and control

Abstract

Research on the effects of parental warmth and control on children's social and emotional development has been predominantly based on studies investigating between-family differences in parental behavior. More recently, behavior genetics research focusing on within-family differences has highlighted differential parental warmth and control as potential sources of sibling differences in behavior. The aim of this study was to test hypotheses, based on findings from several twin and adoption studies, that parental warmth is child specific and covaries with parents' perceptions of sibling behavioral differences, but parental control is similar for both siblings. The sample included 112 mothers and 98 fathers in middle-class families with two sibling children (1–10 years old). Parents' perceptions of their own negative affect and harsh control (physical and verbal) toward each sibling child, and their perceptions of their childrens' externalizing-type and internalizing-type behaviors, were measured. Although parental negative affect was child specific and covaried with perceptions of child externalizing-type behaviors, parental control was unrelated to perceptions of the siblings' behaviors. The contribution of both parent and child characteristics to parent-child transactions, and the value of within-family designs, are discussed.