April Masarik, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Science, recently was published with her colleague Christina Rogers (Texas Tech University) in the Journal of Marriage and Family. Their co-authored piece is “Sibling Warmth Moderates the Intergenerational Transmission of Romantic Relationship Hostility.”
Using prospective, longitudinal data from two generations of families spanning more than 15 years, Masarik and Rogers found that high levels of sibling warmth among sister-sister pairs in adolescence significantly reduced the intergenerational transmission of romantic relationship hostility in adulthood.
However, the opposite pattern was observed for brother-brother pairs. High levels of sibling warmth among brother-brother pairs in adolescence significantly increased the intergenerational transmission of romantic relationship hostility in adulthood.
These associations were found above and beyond the impact of parent-child hostility, socioeconomic status and sibling age spacing. These findings highlight the powerful role of gender socialization in the family of origin to impact future relationships in the family of destination.