Within-family variability in representations of past relationships with parents.
BACKGROUND
We examined within-family variation in siblings' memories of experiences with parents and their associations with current positive and negative affect.


METHODS
Participants were 1,369 adults with at least 1 sibling, aged 26-74 years from 498 families in the MacArthur Study of Midlife in the United States (M(age) = 47 years, 59% women, 94% White).


RESULTS
There was considerable variability in recalled maternal and paternal treatment across the dimensions of affection (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs] 0.33 and 0.41, respectively), discipline (ICCs 0.39 and 0.43), and conflict (ICCs 0.24 and 0.26). In turn, recalled parental treatment, particularly affection, made unique contributions to current positive (ICC 0.12) and negative affect (ICC 0.08) over and above individual and familial level characteristics such as offspring demographic characteristics, extraversion and neuroticism, family structure, recalled early family environment, and parents' current status.


CONCLUSIONS
Results link adults' memories of experiences with their parents in childhood to their current well-being and highlight the importance of considering within-family models for family theory.
Davey
Adam
A
Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19121, USA. adavey@temple.edu
Tucker
Corinna Jenkins
CJ
Fingerman
Karen
K
Savla
Jyoti
J
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D003469:Culture; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005191:Family Characteristics; D054541:Family Conflict / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D010553:Personality Development; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires