Psychologists who study children have emphasized family processes that influence children's psychological well-being and subsequent development, but gerontologists have rarely considered the impact of the family as system in adulthood. Drawing on family systems theories, we show how between- family, within-family, and within-individual differences emerge from family interactions in adulthood. Specifically, we consider how adult behavior might be understood in terms of norms sustained by the larger family system. We present three case studies of adult families to illustrate the ways in which their shared beliefs shape emotional experiences, behavior, and conceptions of self and family in adulthood. The family, as a milieu, continues to exert influence over the day-to-day life of individual members after they are grown.

Objective: High levels of aggression between siblings have been associated with deleterious short- and long-term effects. The objective of the current study was to examine how different types of violence exposure may be related to this form of aggressive behavior in children. Methods: This study examined 213 mother–child dyads that were exposed to varying levels of community violence and disorder, intimate partner violence, father–child physical aggression, and television (TV) violence. Families were from several Head Start Programs in the Midwest. Results: Main effects of hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated that higher maternal depression and children's greater exposure to violent TV were significantly associated with more aggressive behavior toward a sibling. Further, father–child physical aggression interacted with community violence or disorder exposure to predict to aggression between siblings; that is, community violence was associated with sibling aggression only for children experiencing high levels of aggression from their fathers. Conclusions: These findings illuminate the multiple contextual factors that may be related to aggression between preschool-age children and their siblings in the home. Notably, viewing violent TV programming was significantly associated with sibling aggression even after accounting for family and community violence. This suggests the importance of reducing children's exposure to violence across all domains, rather than solely focusing on one particular mode of violence exposure.

Traumatic events can seriously disrupt the development of preschool children. Yet few studies capture developmentally specific examples of traumas and the expression of distress for this age group. Mothers and teachers of 138 preschoolers from low-income families were interviewed about traumatic events and completed a new measure assessing their child's traumatic stress symptoms. They reported traumatic events as the death of a person, death of a pet, family violence, high conflict divorce, sudden family loss, accident or injury, and viewing the World Trade Center attack. Factor analysis of 17 trauma symptoms revealed three internally consistent and valid scales: Intrusions, Emotional Reactivity, and Fears, plus a Total omnibus score. Traumatic stress symptoms varied by the type of event. Scores were higher for traumatic events involving close family members than for distal events.

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