Siblings

Question 1

Why is the sibling relationship important?

Answer 1

It is the longest lasting relationship of most people’s lives
Emotionally uninhibited
Incredible familiarity - possibility for influence is huge
Sharing/competiting for parental attention

Question 2

What is the family systems theory?

Answer 2

Framework about thinking about families
Big change when you go from a three person relationship - martial relationship, mother-child relationship, father child relationship
Adds a level of complexity

Question 3

Systems theory: wholeness

Answer 3

A system is an organised whole that is greater than the sum of its parts

Question 4

Systems theory: integrity of subsystems

Answer 4

Systems are composed of subsystems that may be studied in their own right

Question 5

Systems theory: circularity of influence

Answer 5

All components are mutually interdependent, change in one has implications for all

Question 6

Systems theory: stability and change

Answer 6

Systems are open to outside influences that may change it

Question 7

Home observations: pre-birth to post-sib-birth observations (Dunn and Kendrick)

Answer 7

Small scale, in-depth study
Working class families studied from pregnancy to 14 months
Had a tape recorder, made notes of what was happening
Results: pre-birth to post-sib-birth observations

Mothers positive attention to first borns decreased upon sibling arrival, and negative attention increased
Also a change in balance of responsibility of initiating interaction, 1st borns taking much more of a lead. More confrontation, more negativity etc - first sibling trying to get mums attention more
Interview with mother - reported signs of teasing baby, doing negative things, physical aggression

Question 8

Determinants of sibling relationship quality - Stocker, Dunn and Plomin background

Answer 8

96 middle class mum and sib triads, home visits, observations
Maternal interviews about sibling relationship and temperament 
Interested in PDT - not just spillover, if you are getting treated well or not, believed mothers who treated siblings different was related to competition, less operation

Question 9

Determinants of sibling relationship quality - Stocker, Dunn and Plomin results

Answer 9

Parenting: the more different treatment, there more copetitive and controlling. Spillover effects

Temperament: older siblings more dominant, shyness of older sibling = less competition and control, but don’t see that of younger siblings
Younger sibling anger/upset = predicts sibling competition

Question 10

Understanding PDT - Kowal and Kramer

Answer 10

Asked children about lots of different parenting behaviours and if they are treated the same or different
If they said yes treated different, asked them if fair
Viewed as fair 75% of cases (age, needs)
Viewing PDT as fair eliminated the negative effects of PDT, especially for the older sibling

Question 11

What are the sibling challenges?

Answer 11

Siblings fight up to 8 times an hour
Most conflict is mild, but 4% of children report serious physical victimisation
Most common challenge in their families
Source of most family violence

Question 12

Sibling interventions - Tucker and Finkelhor

Answer 12

Review of existing RCTs with the goal of creating better sibling relationships
Improving social skills
Outcomes: improvedchildren social skills and SRQ
Effect sizes - small effects
Limitations - no follow ups, don’t know if it lasted

Question 13

Do siblings influence behavioural adjustment?

Answer 13

Assessments of sibling relationship during the preschool years predicted early adolescent adjustment
Small effects, some prediction from sibling interactions to later externalising and internalising problems
The sibling relationship was predicted of older sibling adjustment later on than younger - older sibling has more control and responsibility of the relationship

Question 14

What did Pike et al look at?

Answer 14

Identify links between sibling relationship quality in early/middle childhood with children adjustment, having accounted for the effects of parent-child relationship quality
101 WC/MC 2 parent English families, with 2 children ages 4-8
Cross sectional

Question 15

What did Pike et al find?

Answer 15

Sibling relationship quality was associated with the older siblings adjustment, controlling for the childrens relationships with parents

Positivity within the sibling relationship was more strongly linked with child adjustment than was sibling conflict

More anger from mum or dad, lower the quality of the relationship - spillover

Question 16

What did Garcia et al look at?

Answer 16

Looked at sibling conflict to examine its relationships with maternal and teacher report of conduct problems in a low income sample of 180 5 year old boys and their close age siblings
Also controlled for early behaviour problems and rejecting parenting

Question 17

What did Garcia et al find?

Answer 17

The interaction between destructive sibling conflict and rejecting parenting predicted aggressive behaviour problems across time, such that a rise in aggression scores was evident for children who had high levels of both sibling conflict and rejecting parenting
High conflict wasn’t always associated with aggression, it was Lower when there wasn’t an rejecting parenting, if your parents weren’t rejecting they had lower levels of aggression (moderation)

Sibling conflict was also related directly longitudinally to the child behaviour checklist delinquency factor

Question 18

Why was Pike’s study bad compared to Garcia’s?

Answer 18

Garcia - longtidunal

Pike - cross sectional, just shows a link at one point