2023 Publications
You Can't Pick Your Family: Parental Differential Treatment and Attachment
Tiffany D. Russell
University of North Dakota
Alicia Limke-McLean
University of Central Oklahoma
The goal of the current project was to investigate the effect of perceived parental differential treatment (affection and control) and insecure parental attachment on adult sibling attachment. University students with siblings completed measures of attachment to fathers, mothers, and siblings as well as perceived parental differential treatment in childhood. We expected that path analyses would show that attachment to parents would mediate the link between perceived differential treatment and adult attachment to siblings and found mixed support for this hypothesis. Specifically, avoidant attachment to father mediated the link between differential paternal affection and avoidant attachment to sibling whereas anxious attachment to mother mediated the link between differential maternal affection and anxious attachment to sibling. These findings add adult parental and sibling attachment to consequences associated with unequal emotional treatment in childhood, emphasize the role of fathers in the family system, and demonstrate the need for continued research into sibling relationships.
Tiffany D. Russell
University of North Dakota
Alicia Limke-McLean
University of Central Oklahoma
The goal of the current project was to investigate the effect of perceived parental differential treatment (affection and control) and insecure parental attachment on adult sibling attachment. University students with siblings completed measures of attachment to fathers, mothers, and siblings as well as perceived parental differential treatment in childhood. We expected that path analyses would show that attachment to parents would mediate the link between perceived differential treatment and adult attachment to siblings and found mixed support for this hypothesis. Specifically, avoidant attachment to father mediated the link between differential paternal affection and avoidant attachment to sibling whereas anxious attachment to mother mediated the link between differential maternal affection and anxious attachment to sibling. These findings add adult parental and sibling attachment to consequences associated with unequal emotional treatment in childhood, emphasize the role of fathers in the family system, and demonstrate the need for continued research into sibling relationships.
| You Can't Pick Your Family |