Correlates of Parental Differential Treatment: Parental and Contextual Factors During Middle Childhood

Abstract

The current study examined whether parental and contextual risk factors contribute to mothers' and fathers' differential treatment (MDT/FDT) when accounting for sibling dyad characteristics. Also explored was whether family type (single mothers vs. 2 parents) moderated the links between the parental and contextual correlates and MDT. One hundred and seventy-two families with older (M= 7.4 years) and younger (M= 5.2 years) siblings were studied. Parents and children reported about the parent-child relationship, and parents reported about the children's characteristics, their own psychological resources, and contextual factors. Controlling for sibling dyad characteristics, FDT was predicted most consistently by household chaos. Furthermore, single mothers were not at risk per se for using more MDT but only when coupled with high maternal anger.

Parental criticism and externalizing behavior problems in adolescents: The role of environment and genotype–environment correlation.

“…However, it is worth noting that in other non-western cultures mothers and fathers may have different roles in child adjustment and thus rGE may act differently as compared to western culture (Atzaba-Poria & Pike, 2008). …”

Do Chinese and American Children's Interpretations of Parenting Moderate Links between Perceived Parenting and Child Adjustment?

“…For this reason, we acknowledge that we must draw our conclusions with caution. Still, other studies have found that children's perceptions of parents' behaviors can be meaningfully related to data provided by other reporters regarding family context or social adjustment (e.g., Atzaba-Poria & Pike, 2008;Gaylord, Kitzmann, & Coleman, 2003). Given the promise of our findings, we believe that it would be profitable to invest in future studies that include measures obtained from both parents and children, and that examine prospective relations among parents' behavior, children's interpretations of their behavior, and children's adjustment.…”

Commentary: Why are children in the same family so different? Non-shared environment three decades later

“…First, there has been slow but steady progress towards identifying specific sources of non-shared environment associated with outcomes. Recent research examines possible contextual moderators of the links between non-shared experiences and outcomes 50 . Second, non-shared experiences outside the family are increasingly targets for these investigations 38 , 51 .…”