This study examined associations between changes in sibling relationships and changes in parental differential treatment and corresponding changes in children's adjustment. One hundred thirty-three families were assessed at 3 time points. Parents rated children's externalizing problems, and children reported on sibling relationship quality, parental differential treatment, and depressive symptoms. On average, older siblings were 10, 12, and 16 years old, and younger siblings were 8, 10, and 14 years old at Waves 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Results from hierarchical linear modeling indicated that as sibling relationships improved over time, children's depressive symptoms decreased over time. In addition, as children were less favored over their siblings over time, children's externalizing problems increased over time. Findings highlight the developmental interplay between the sibling context and children's adjustment.

This study examined associations between parents' emotion coaching and emotional expressiveness, and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The sample included 131 16-year-olds and their mothers and fathers. Adolescents completed an open-ended interview about their parents' emotion coaching. Adolescents rated parents' negative emotional expressiveness, and parents and adolescents reported on adolescents' adjustment. Results indicated that mothers were more accepting and supportive of their children's expression of negative emotions than were fathers. Parents' coaching of emotions was associated with fewer adolescents' internalizing symptoms and was unrelated to their externalizing symptoms. Parents' negative emotional expressiveness was positively linked to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Parents' emotion coaching and negative emotional expressiveness explained unique variance in adolescents' internalizing symptoms. Resultshighlight the importance of the family's emotional climate for adolescents' well-being.

Attachment theory proposes that early care plays a key role in the emergence and organization of secure-base behavior across a wide range of cultures and contexts. Most studies on the topic have been conducted with Caucasian North American and European samples. Research needs to address questions concerning the cross-cultural generality of the sensitivity-security link, the appropriateness of the conceptualization of caregiving offered by attachment theory in other cultures, and the identification of caregiving domains other than those proposed by the theory. The authors address these issues in a study of maternal care and infant security in 2 different countries. Q descriptions of maternal behavior were obtained from observations at home. Infant security was assessed in a laboratory environment in Denver, Colorado and in the home environment in Bogota, Colombia. Findings are discussed in terms of the generality of the sensitivity-security link, the appropriateness of the model of caregiving suggested by attachment theory in both countries, and the relevance of other domains of caregiving to security.

Bowlby and Ainsworth's theory of attachment poses that concurrent caregiving behavior is a key factor in influencing and maintaining a child's organization of secure-base behavior, and ultimately, security throughout childhood. Empirical demonstrations of the relation between the constructs after infancy are relatively scant and research is needed to examine the relation between the variables across a wide range of contexts, over longer observational periods, and in developmentally appropriate ways. Two studies of preschoolers and their mothers were conducted in naturalistic settings. Fifty child-mother middle-class dyads, predominantly Caucasian, participated in Study 1 and 40 in Study 2. The mean age for children was 52 months (Study 1) and 36 months (Study 2). In Study 1, a home and a playground visits were conducted. In Study 2, two home and a playground visits were conducted. Observers used the Maternal Behavior for Preschoolers Q-Set to provide age-relevant descriptions of maternal behavior, and the Attachment Q-Set to provide descriptions of child behavior. Overall, findings indicated that maternal secure base support was significantly related to the organization of child secure base behavior (r = .31 and .49 for Study 1 and Study 2, respectively). Results are discussed in terms of the importance of specifying caregiving domains and contexts of assessments, and their implications for attachment theory.

This study asked whether family cohesion, a measure of whole family functioning, was associated with adolescent siblings' externalizing problems, controlling for the quality of each sibling's relationship with his or her parents. The sample included 93 families (mothers, fathers, and 2 adolescent siblings). Family cohesion was measured from videotaped observations of parents and 2 of their adolescent children discussing family conflict and limit setting. Adolescents reported on hostility in their relationships with mothers and fathers, and parents rated adolescents' externalizing problems. Results from multilevel modeling showed that family cohesion was negatively associated with adolescents' externalizing problems, independent of variance explained by hostility in dyadic parent-child relationships. Results support family systems theory, suggesting that whole family functioning has implications for adolescents' behavioral problems beyond those accounted for by dyadic family relationships.