Sibling Relationships : Their Nature and Significance Across the Lifespan

First published in 1982. Since the emergence of developmental psychology early this century, theorists and researchers have emphasized the family's role in shaping the child's emergent social style, personality, and cognitive competence. In so doing, however, psychologists have implicitly adopted a fairly idiosyncratic definition of the family— one that focuses almost exclusively on parents and mostly on mothers. The realization that most families contain two parents and at least two children has occurred slowly, and has brought with it recognition that children develop in the context of a diverse network of social relationships within which each person may affect every other both directly (through their interactions) and indirectly (i.e., through A's effect on B, who in turn influences C). The family is such a social network, itself embedded in a broader network of relations with neighbors, relatives, and social institutions. Within the family, relationships among siblings have received little attention until fairly recently. In this volume, the goal is to review the existing empirical and theoretical literature concerning the nature and importance of sibling relationships. Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface List of Contributors 1. Sibling Relationships Across the Lifespan: An Overview and Introduction Overview Siblings as Agents of Socialization Outline of the Volume Summary 2. The Effect of the Newborn on the Older Sibling: Mothers' Questionnaires Method Results Discussion Concluding Comment 3. Siblings and Their Mothers: Developing Relationships Within the Family Introduction The Study Conclusions 4. Patterns of Sibling Interaction Among Preschool-age Children Introduction Overview of the Studies Conclusion 5. Sibling Relationships in Middle Childhood Intrapersonal Experience of Sibling Relationships in Middle Childhood Interpersonal Encounters Between Siblings In Middle Childhood Siblings as Caretakers Pets as Second-Order Modifiers or Sibling Surrogates Conclusion 6. Sibling Deidentification and Split-Parent Identification: A Family Tetrad Studies in Sibling Deidentification Studies of Split-Parent Identification Family Tetrad: Structure and Function 7. Birth Order and Sibling Status Effects Psychological Primogeniture Sibling Status and Sex Role Effects 8. Life Span Personality Stability in Sibling Status The Study Discussion 9. Important Variables in Adult Sibling Relationships: A Qualitative Study Perceived Closeness Perceived Sibling Rivalry Critical Incidents Concluding Remarks 10. Intense Sibling Loyalties Loyalty Defined How Loyalty is Demonstrated Sibling Loyalty: Benefits and Burdens 11. Sibling Influence Throughout the Lifespan Existence of the Sibling Relationship Nature of the Sibling Relationship Sibling Influence Conclusions 12. Only Children in America The American Context Only Children Summary and Conclusions 13. Sibling Interdependence and Child Caretaking: A Cross-Cultural View Introduction Sibling Caretaking During Childhood: Hawaiian and Polynesian Examples Functional Allegiances of the Adult Sibling Group: Marriage and Property Conclusion 14. Sibling Relationships in Nonhuman Primates Introduction Some Basic Issues in the Study of Sibling Relationships Two Contrasting Approaches to the Study of Sibling Interactions Kinship and Social Structure: Who are the Siblings and Who Are the Peers? The Development of Sibling Relationships: Two Illustrative Cases Implications for Study of Sibling Relationships in Humans 15. Similarities and Differences Among Siblings An Overview of the Chapter Genetic Sources of Sibling Similarities and Differences Environmental Theories of Sibling Differences Genotype-Environment Correlations Conclusions Epilogue: Framing the Problem Author Index Subject Index Abstract: Very few sibling studies were designed to illuminate developmental changes occuring during the middle childhood years. The existing cross-sectional studies of children representing ages 6-12 yield scant suggestion of the developmental changes occurring during middle childhood, particularly for sibling relations. However, depending on the phase of middle childhood being experienced by one or more siblings in the family, sibling experiences result in differing outcomes. Nor are there studies that directly contrast sibling experiences in early childhood with those in middle childhood and with those in adolescence. The present review calls for longitudinal consideration of sibling conflict and its pattern of resolution over time as well as developmental consideration of issues that involve sibling dependency and needs for one another