Warmth with Mothers and Fathers from Middle Childhood to Late Adolescence: Within- and Between-Families Comparisons

The authors examined siblings' dyadic and differential experiences of parental warmth from 7 to 19 years of age. Participants were first- and second-borns from 201 families who reported on their warmth with each parent in 4 home interviews spaced over 5 years. Supporting an individual developme...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDevelopmental psychology Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 551 - 563
Main Authors Shanahan, Lilly, McHale, Susan M, Crouter, Ann C, Osgood, D. Wayne
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Psychological Association 01.05.2007
Subjects
Adolescent
Affect
Age Differences
Birth Order
Child
Child Development
Children
Family Relationship
Father-Child Relations
Female
Gender Differences
Humans
Individuation
Interviews
Late Adolescents
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Mother-Child Relations
Parent Child Relationship
Parenting - psychology
Psychology, Adolescent
Psychology, Child
Sex Factors
Siblings
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Summary:The authors examined siblings' dyadic and differential experiences of parental warmth from 7 to 19 years of age. Participants were first- and second-borns from 201 families who reported on their warmth with each parent in 4 home interviews spaced over 5 years. Supporting an individual development hypothesis, multilevel model analyses revealed declines in parental warmth from early through midadolescence but no changes or increases in warmth in middle childhood and later adolescence. Consistent with a learning-from-experience hypothesis, declines in paternal warmth were less pronounced for second-borns than for firstborns. The results also suggest gender intensification in differential warmth for parents of mixed-gender sibling dyads. Within-family comparisons of youth provide unique insights about family relationship development.
ISSN:0012-1649
DOI:10.1037/0012-1649.43.3.551