Parents who had been placed in an orphanage as children rated the behaviour of all their children who were between the ages of 6–18 years on a children's behaviour survey instrument. All families were intact and the parents had not requested professional help for marital problems. A significant number of relationships were found between parental background variables and higher reported levels of conflict with siblings and with parents, dependent-unassertive behaviour, and undemandingness in the children. Although sampling difficulties preclude generalization, the results suggest that repercussion of events in the lives of the first and second generation that are usually pathogenic may be seen in the third generation, even when the second generation may not be grossly adversely affected. These events most frequently related to individual differences in the third generation in the area of undercontrol of aggression directed toward parents and siblings.
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