Translating Basic Research on the Aging Family to Caregiving Intervention: The Case of Within-Family Differences

Since its inception, the field of gerontology has sought to establish optimal connections between the scientific activities of researchers and the real-world concerns of practitioners and clinicians. The concept of translational research has emerged in recent years as a model for bridging the gap between science and service. This article provides an example of how basic research findings can be translated to provide guidance for intervention in the area of family caregiving. We review findings from an innovative program of research on within-family differences, which extends theory and research from the developmental psychological study of children to the family in later life. The within-family difference perspective focuses on how the individual parent-child dyads in a particular family differ from and are affected by other dyads. Basic research on this topic has revealed the extent of parental favoritism in later life, factors related to parental differential treatment of offspring, and the consequences of such favoritism and treatment on sibling relationship quality and psychological well-being. Four examples are provided of ways in which attention to within-family differences research could enhance caregiving interventions.