Abstract
Recent findings on both young children (Dunn & Munn, 1986) and adolescents (Daniels, Dunn, Furstenberg, & Plomin, 1985) have suggested that differences in the ways that parents relate to their different offspring (i.e., within-family variation) may be quite consequential for child development. We have found these findings to be of considerable interest, partly because they provide fresh evidence that child-rearing differences matter. This is important in light of recent work in two bodies of research in developmental psychology that has called into question the importance of child-rearing variation between families. Reviews of the socialization literature (e.g., Maccoby & Martin, 1983) have suggested that, within normal ranges, child-rearing variation between families appears to be of only modest consequence for child development.

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