title: You're Just Like Your Dad: Intergenerational Patterns of Differential Treatment of Siblings.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Past work highlights that parents' differential treatment has implications for offspring's mental and relational health across the life course. Although the current body of literature has examined offspring- and parent-level correlates of differential treatment, research has yet to consider whether and how patterns of differential treatment are transmitted across generations.
  
  
  METHODS
  As part of a two-wave longitudinal study of 157 families, both grandparents (M age = 76.50 years, SD = 6.20) and parents (M age = 51.10 years, SD = 4.41) reported on differential treatment of their own offspring at both phases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A series of residualized change models revealed support for both continuity and compensation hypotheses. Middle-aged parents tended to model the patterns of differential treatment exhibited by their fathers, but middle-aged men who experienced more differential treatment from their own parents in recent years tended to subsequently exhibit lower levels of differential treatment to their offspring.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that patterns of differential treatment both continue and diverge across generations, and those patterns vary by gender. On a broader level, these results also suggest that siblings not only impact one another's development, but in adulthood, they may indirectly influence their nieces' and nephews' development by virtue of their influence on their siblings' parenting.
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
authors.forename: Alexander C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
authors.forename: Shawn D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Whiteman
authors.affiliation: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rand
authors.affiliation: Human Development and Family Science, University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Fingerman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology*; D012933:Social Identification
keywords: Adult siblings; Families in middle life and later life; Family process; Intergenerational transmission; Parenting; Sibling relationships