Intergenerational transmission of perceived parenting

A study is reported in which the possible occurrence of a significant relat ionship between the experience of parenting, in a large series of parent-of fspring pairs from 67 multigenerational families, aged 17-90 yr was investi gated. The sample generated 448 parent-offspring pairs. Both parents and of fsprings, independently of each other, completed the EMBU (a Swedish acrony m for 'early memories of parental rearing'). Consistently with other studie s in the literature, in which different approaches were used, several signi ficant correlations were found, especially concerning the experience of emo tional warmth in fathers and a similar experience both in sons and daughter s. Correlations between the experience of mothers and those of offsprings p roved to be weaker and mostly refer to dysfunctional rearing attitudes (ove rprotection and rejection). Even though, the reported findings add to the b ody of knowledge as to a possible intergenerational transmission of parenti ng, they cannot answer the question concerning the extent to which temperam ental characteristics contribute to the correlations which were presented. Suggestions for further studies to elucidate this and other relevant issues are therefore, warranted. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.