Sibling temperaments and maternal and paternal perceptions of marital, family, and personal functioning

Contemporaneous associations were examined between child temperament and marital and family functioning in two-child families. Dyadic combinations of sibling temperament were studied, as was agreement between parents concerning child temperament. Mothers and fathers in 70 families participated. Parents completed measures of marital satisfaction, family climate, spousal conflict, depression, and ratings of older and younger sibling temperament. Strong associations were found between active-emotional temperaments in older daughters and compromised marital and family functioning. When older and younger sibling temperaments were considered simultaneously, significant relationships with marriage and family were isolated to same-gender parent-child triads. Parent agreement was related to healthy family functioning when older children, the same gender as the parent, were perceived as temperamentally easy.