Retrospective Perceptions of Parents' Child-Rearing Conduct by Same-Sex Sibling Trios in African American and European American Families

Abstract

Adult (M = 33 years) trios of 20 sisters and 6 brothers from 15 African American and 11 European American intact families retrospectively described their parents' child-rearing conduct on the Parent–Child Relations Questionnaire II (Siegelman & Roe, 1979). Respondents' mean education (15.1 years) and family size exceeded U.S. averages. Fitting cultural stereotypes, mothers were depicted as more loving, more attentive, and less rejecting than fathers. African American parents were described as more demanding and less lenient than European American parents, although this finding was confounded with the latter's greater education (M = 14.4 years vs. 10.9 years). Daughter trios tended to differ more than son trios on their ratings of each parent, suggesting that daughters may be more attentive to intrafamilial events. The uniqueness of the sample and the small number of brother trios limit the generalizabilty of these findings.