Young Adult Siblings’ Management of Parental Differential Treatment: An Integrative Framework of Uncertainty and Attachment

Drawing upon uncertainty management and attachment theories, this study examines how young adult siblings manage parental differential treatment (PDT) through avoidance or information seeking, and how these communication strategies are shaped by situational factors of fairness appraisals and emotional responses as well as by the relational schema of parent-child attachment. Using quantitative survey data and open-ended written accounts from 405 young adults who recalled an episode of differential parental support between themselves and their target siblings, we identified four distinct communication strategies: adaptive avoidance, fearful avoidance, self-initiated information seeking, and parent-initiated information seeking. Multinomial logistic regression results suggested that fairness appraisals predicted the likelihood of different emotional responses (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral/mixed emotions). Testing both situational and relational schema predictors, results further indicated that lower levels of fairness appraisals, negative emotions, and less parental attachment were generally associated with increased odds of young adult siblings’ using fearful avoidance strategy and decreased odds of their using adaptive avoidance or parent-initiated information seeking strategies. Implications for fostering children’s effective cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses in managing PDT are discussed.