Sibling interaction: evidence of a generational effect in maltreating infants

Theorists have long assumed that an individual's style of child-rearing was based, in large part, on his or her parents' style of parenting. The strongest evidence of such a generational effect comes from retrospective studies of disturbed adults. The present study is an attempt to provide some prospective evidence. Infants, aged 6 to 11 months, were videotaped interacting with their mother, with a sibling, and with a second adult. At each sibling age (from 2 to 10 years) one abused, one neglected, one problematic, and one normally reared infant was seen. The adult/sibling patterns of interaction were coded as abusive, neglecting, inept, or sensitive. Infant patterns were difficult, passive, and cooperative. Siblings were found to interact with the infant in a manner similar to that of their mothers suggesting that they had learned their style of interaction from their mothers. Although adequately reared siblings increased in sensitivity with age, maltreated siblings did not. The possibility that infant temperament had influenced both the mothers' and the siblings' style of interaction (and, therefore, accounted for their similarity) was tested using a second adult interactant. Adults were found to influence infants more than the reverse. These data provide evidence of a generational effect in the learning of parenting styles appearing as early as the third year of life. Moreover, they suggest that the effect is not attributable to infant temperament.