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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

An initial look at sibling reports on children's behavior: comparisons with children's self-reports and relations with siblings' self-reports and sibling relationships.

The authors examined siblings' reports of children's depression, anxiety, and aggression, and their reports of the sibling relationship, and compared them with children's self-reports. In two samples, including 169 sibling pairs (age M = 9.98 years, SD = 1.51), no significant differences emerged in the levels of depression and anxiety found in siblings' reports of children's behavior and children's self-reports, although siblings reported children to have significantly higher levels of aggression than the children self-reported. Age, the difference in ages between siblings, sex, and sibling sex were not related to siblings' reports of children's behavior. The relations between children's and siblings' reports of children's behavior were significant, yet moderate (average r = .22). Both siblings' self-reports of internalizing behavior and their perceptions of aspects of the sibling relationship (affection, rivalry, hostility, and satisfaction with the sibling relationship) explained significant, and unique, variance in siblings' reports of children's internalizing behavior. The findings for aggressive behavior were similar, although siblings' perceptions of affection in the sibling relationship were not significantly related to their reports of children's aggression. The potential uses and benefits of sibling reports of children's behavior, and sibling and family relationships, are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Sibling power: influence of older siblings' persuasive appeals on younger siblings' judgements about risk taking behaviours.

OBJECTIVES: Although many injuries happen when school age children are away from home and in the company of other children, we know surprisingly little about interpersonal influences on children's risk taking decisions. The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of older siblings' persuasive appeals on young children's decisions about engaging in behaviours that could threaten their physical safety. METHODS: Forty same sex sibling pairs participated. Children were shown drawings of play scenes (bicycling, river crossing, and sledding), with each depicting lower and higher risk paths of travel. Children of 8 years made initial decisions as to which paths they would take. Subsequently, their older sibling acted as a confederate and tried to persuade them to change their decisions. RESULTS: After the appeals of older siblings, younger children significantly shifted their decisions: choices of less risky paths replaced the initial selection of more risky paths, and vice versa. A positive sibling relationship was predictive of younger siblings' decision changes. Boys and girls were equally effective in persuasion but they did so using different types of arguments, with boys communicating primarily appeals to fun and girls emphasizing appeals to safety. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the effect that older siblings can have on risk taking decisions of younger siblings. Accordingly, they document the importance of considering the interpersonal context of risk taking when designing interventions to reduce injuries among elementary schoolchildren.

Child↗
PubMed2007

Neuropsychological functioning of siblings of children with autism, siblings of children with developmental language delay, and siblings of children with mental retardation of unknown genetic etiology.

Neuropsychological functioning of 30 siblings of children with autism (AU-S), 28 siblings of children with mental retardation of (MR-S), and 30 siblings of children with developmental language delay (DLD-S) was compared. Two siblings, both AU-S, received diagnoses of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). More siblings with cognitive disabilities were found in DLD-S than in AU-S. However, these differences disappeared after excluding diagnosed siblings or after accounting for family membership. In sum, despite the elevated incidence of PDD among AU-S, the neuropsychological functioning of the remaining siblings did not convey specific characteristics related to the genetic risk associated with autism, in contrast to the cognitive functioning of the DLD-S, which did reflect a genetic risk.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

Parent ratings of EAS temperaments in twins, full siblings, half siblings, and step siblings.

A twin/family design was used to explore genetic contributions to personality; to evaluate whether twins and nontwins yield different genetic results; and to test for the presence of contrast effects, the tendency of a rater to contrast one sibling with the other, thereby magnifying existing behavioral differences. The sample consisted of 708 adolescent same-sex sibling pairs from 10 to 18 years of age. Pairs included identical (monozygotic; MZ) and fraternal (dizygotic; DZ) twins, and full siblings in nondivorced families; and full, half, and unrelated siblings in stepfamilies. Mothers and fathers rated the temperament of their children on the EAS Temperament Survey (A. H. Buss & R. Plomin, 1984). Model-fitting analyses revealed significant genetic influences on each of the four EAS dimensions; however, for some dimensions, heritability estimates were significantly greater for twins than for nontwins. Overall, the data were best described by a sibling interaction model, which indicated significant contrast effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Sibling adaptation to childhood cancer collaborative study: health outcomes of siblings of children with cancer.

OBJECTIVE: This seven-site study examined the overall health status, healthcare utilization, somatization, and health-risk behaviors of siblings of children with cancer compared to these factors in matched controls or normative data. The study also examined whether informants (i.e., siblings, parents, physicians) differed in their assessments of the above health domains. DESIGN: Subjects were 254 siblings of children with cancer from seven different pediatric oncology treatment centers that participated in the Sibling Adaptation to Childhood Cancer Collaborative study group. Predictors of the siblings' health status, healthcare utilization, somatization, and health-risk behaviors were identified, and the relationship between these health domains and the siblings' resiliency vs. dysfunctionality were explored via interviews. RESULTS: Overall, siblings were found to be moderately healthy, although siblings report significant problems with sleeping and eating. Healthcare utilization appears to be reduced for siblings. Most importantly, the parents of these siblings are less likely to seek medical help for a variety of conditions for which parents of control children would bring their children to a doctor. A pattern emerged of parental underreporting of sibling health variables when compared to what the siblings themselves reported. When the relationship between health outcomes and the siblings' adaptation to their sick sibling's illness was examined, the resilient and dysfunctional groups significantly differed from each other. It appears that health outcomes are related to sibling adaptation to the changes brought about by their sick sibling's cancer diagnosis and treatment. CONCLUSIONS: The focus of care for families of children with cancer is often limited to the child with cancer. As indicated in this study, the "healthy" siblings may be overlooked in the process. While parents appear to recognize that their "healthy" children are complaining more about aches and pains, they may have little energy or time to attend to the needs of these other family members. It is the intent of this study to document what clinicians may expect and to highlight the need for evaluation of this otherwise neglected group.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Integrated sibling-parent group intervention to improve sibling knowledge and adjustment to chronic illness and disability.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate an integrated group intervention for siblings and parents designed to increase sibling understanding of and adjustment to chronic illness and developmental disability (CI/DD). METHODS: Fifty-four well siblings (ages 8-13 years) and their parents were recruited through hospital-based and community agencies serving children with CI/DD. Measures of sibling knowledge, sibling adjustment to the disorder, sibling connectedness, and sibling global behavioral functioning were collected before and after the intervention. A subsample of 20 families completed a 3-month follow-up to assess maintenance of results. RESULTS: Sibling knowledge of the child's disorder and sibling connectedness increased, while sibling reports of negative adjustment to the disorder and parent reports of sibling global behavioral functioning decreased significantly from pre- to posttreatment for both boys and girls, regardless of the type of diagnostic condition. Improvements in sibling knowledge, connectedness, and behavioral problems maintained at 3-month follow-up. Parent satisfaction with the program was high. CONCLUSIONS: Results support the future conduct of more controlled evaluation of the integrated sibling and parent group intervention model to improve sibling knowledge of and adjustment to CI/DD.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Differential experiences of siblings in the same family as predictors of adolescent sibling personality differences.

In the area of personality development, environmental influences operate to make siblings in the same family different rather than similar to each other. The goal of the present study was to determine whether differential experience of siblings can be used to explain the marked personality differences of siblings. The Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience (SIDE) along with personality information (the EAS Temperament Inventory and questions about career expectations) was administered to 50 biological sibling pairs and 98 adoptive sibling pairs in adolescence and young adulthood. The results indicated that differential sibling interaction and differential peer characteristics as self-reported on the SIDE explain 6%-26% of the variance in sibling personality difference scores. For example, the sibling who reports more sociability as compared to his sibling also experiences more sibling closeness and more peer popularity as compared to his sibling. Comparison between adoptive and biological siblings indicates that the SIDE relations are mediated environmentally rather than genetically.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Effect of sibling perception of differential parental treatment in sibling dyads with one disabled child.

OBJECTIVE: To examine sibling perception of parental differential treatment in families of children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), Down syndrome (DS), and nondisabled controls. METHOD: Sibling self-concept and social support were studied in the context of sibling perceptions of parental differential treatment and caretaker plus teacher evaluations of sibling behavioral adjustment. Measures were completed at time 1 and time 2. The effect of parental stress and the difficulty of the disabled child, as well as the sibling relationship, were considered. RESULTS: For siblings of PDD children, internalizing and externalizing behavior problems identified by caretakers were evident at time 1 and more accentuated at time 2, at which time teachers also identified these difficulties. DS siblings were reported by caretakers and teachers to have only internalizing problems and only at time 2. These difficulties related to the perception for PDD siblings that they were preferred over their disabled sibling and for the DS sibling that their disabled sibling was preferred. Feelings of low competence predicted internalizing difficulties. Social support, especially over time, had a positive effect for all siblings, including the controls. CONCLUSION: The elucidation of specific mechanisms contributing to adjustment problems in the siblings of disabled children will allow for the development of specific preventive interventions.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sibling self-report, parental proxies, and quality of life: the importance of multiple informants for siblings of a critically ill child.

Assessment of quality of life (QoL) has thus far been a neglected approach in describing psychological adaptation in siblings of seriously ill children. The present results concern differences and correspondences between parent- and child-reported QoL in siblings of pediatric cancer patients, at 1 month and 2 years after the diagnosis in the ill child. A total of 83 Siblings aged 7-18 participated in the study at 1 month after the diagnosis; 57 of these siblings (69%) participated in follow-up assessment 24 months later. The parent and child form of the TNO-AZL Children's Quality of Life questionnaire (TACQoL) and the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) were used to assess QoL and behavioral problems in siblings. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was used to assess parent mental health. Mean differences, correspondences between informants, and partial correlations with parent mental health were assessed at both measurement occasions. Correspondence between parent and child was low to moderate for most domains at both assessments. Low agreement was observed on several domains in our study group compared to reference data. Young siblings (ages 7-11) reported significantly more physical and motor problems at 1 and 24 months and less positive emotions at 24 months than their parents. Adolescent siblings reported more physical complaints at 1 month and more emotional and behavior problems (YSR) at both assessments, but also reported higher social QoL than their parents at 24 months. Parent psychological distress was negatively correlated with parent-reported physical QoL in the sibling. The findings suggest that siblings of children with cancer experience a more serious burden from the illness than is perceived by the parents. Physical complaints and emotional problems remain mostly unnoticed, although distressed parents are more focused on the child's physical health. These results imply that assessment of self-reported well-being is especially relevant in siblings of a critically ill child, to obtain a realistic image of siblings' QoL. Further studies on sibling QoL are needed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Parent-child relationships, family problems-solving behavior, and sibling relationship quality: the moderating role of sibling temperaments.

In this study we sought to determine whether sibling temperaments moderated the associations of parent-child relationship quality and family problem-solving behavior with sibling relationship quality. Observational assessments of mother-child and father-child relationship quality, family problem-solving behavior, and sibling relationship quality were obtained from the families of 49 pairs of brothers and 46 pairs of sisters. Mean ages were 10-2 for older siblings and 7-6 for younger siblings. Parent-reported child temperament assessments were also obtained. The links among mother-older child relationship quality, father-older child relationship quality, and sibling relationship quality were moderated by the older sibling's temperament. The younger and older siblings' temperaments moderated the associations between the quality of the father-younger sibling and sibling relationships. The association between family problem-solving behavior and sibling relationship quality was not moderated by sibling temperaments.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Distinguishing full siblings from half-siblings in limited pedigrees.

BACKGROUND: Full siblings were compared with half-siblings to observe how well the two relationships could be distinguished by informative tests. STUDY AND DESIGN METHODS: Parentage analysis ascertained 25 pairs of full siblings and 25 pairs of half-siblings. The pairs were then examined for the sharing of alleles at three independent variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) loci. A sibling index (SI) and a half-sibling index (HSI) were calculated for each pair, and an SI:HSI ratio was determined. RESULTS: The SI:HSI ratio favored full siblings in 18 of 25 full sibling pairs. The SI:HSI ratio exceeded 100 in 8 of those 25 pairs. Although the ratio favored half-siblings in 23 of 25 half-sibling pairs, as was expected with the use of only 3 loci, it exceeded 0.1 in all 25 pairs. CONCLUSION: Study of more than three highly informative loci is required to improve the identification of full siblings and might well permit the identification of half-siblings.

Alleles↗
PubMed2005

The lifetime prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysms among siblings of aneurysm patients is eightfold higher than among siblings of spouses: an analysis of 187 aneurysm families in Nova Scotia, Canada.

BACKGROUND: Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are frequently familial. The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of AAA among the siblings of AAA patients with that in the spouses' siblings. METHODS: The siblings of 375 AAA patients and the siblings of the spouses of the AAA patients were included in this study and offered ultrasonography screening for AAA. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to collect demographic and general health information. Statistical analysis was done with Fisher's exact test. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were also calculated. RESULTS: Abdominal ultrasonography examinations were done for 309 individuals. The results indicated that 11 (11.2%) of 98 brothers of AAA patients, 4 (2.7%) of 147 sisters, and none of the 64 siblings of the spouses of the AAA patients were found to have an AAA. Combining the information from the ultrasonography screening and medical records on already known cases of AAA in these families, altogether 29.0% (44/152) of the brothers of AAA patients, 11.1% (20/181) of the sisters of AAA patients, and 2.3% (2/88) of the siblings of the spouses had an AAA. CONCLUSION: There was a significant difference between the siblings of the AAA patients and those of the spouses both in the frequency of AAA detected by ultrasonography screening and in the overall prevalence of AAA. The overall prevalence of AAA in the siblings of AAA patients was about eight times that observed among the siblings of their spouses (19.2% vs 2.3%). These findings confirmed previous reports on high prevalence of AAA among siblings of AAA patients and emphasized the importance of an ultrasonography screening program for siblings of AAA patients.

Age Distribution↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Social support for school-aged siblings of children with cancer: a comparison between parent and sibling perceptions.

This descriptive, exploratory study investigated the social support interventions received by school-aged siblings of children with cancer and which of those interventions are perceived as being helpful. A comparison between the siblings' and parents' perceptions was made. The conceptual framework was guided by House's (1981) work on social support, which includes major categories of support variables including emotional, informational, instrumental, and appraisal support. A nonprobability purposive sample consisted of 50 school-aged siblings of children with cancer and their parents. Subjects completed either the sibling or parent version of the Nurse-Sibling Social Support Questionnaire (NSSSQ). Descriptive statistical analyses were performed to examine NSSSQ helpfulness and frequency scores for both siblings and parents. Paired t tests were used to test the difference between the responses given by siblings and by their parents on the NSSSQ helpfulness and frequency scales. Results demonstrated that siblings perceive interventions aimed at providing emotional and instrumental support as the most helpful. Parents perceived interventions aimed at meeting the siblings' need for emotional and informational support the most beneficial. Parents reported that siblings receive emotional, informational, and appraisal support more frequently than siblings did.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Sibling differentiation: sibling and parent relationship trajectories in adolescence.

Studied here were the links between sibling differences in trajectories of change in the qualities of parent-child relationships and the qualities of sibling relationships across a 2-year period in adolescence. Participants were first- and second-born siblings (M age = 14.94 years for firstborns and M age = 12.46 years for secondborns) from 185 predominantly White, working and middle-class families. In home interviews, siblings reported on their dyadic family relationships. For reports of parent-child warmth but not parent-child conflict, results were consistent with sibling differentiation theory: Increasing differences between siblings over time in parent-child warmth were linked to trajectories of increasing warmth and decreasing conflict in the sibling relationship as reported by firstborns, and increasing warmth in the sibling relationship as reported by secondborns. The findings support the view that sibling differentiation may be a strategy for managing sibling conflict and rivalry.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1989

Perceived changes in siblings of hospitalized children: a comparison of sibling and parent reports.

This study compared sibling perception of changes in feelings and behaviors to parental perception of sibling changes during a pediatric hospitalization. The data showed a low level of agreement on a Perceived Change Scale, with siblings reporting a significantly higher number of changes than did their parents. Further, the only significant main effect found on seven-way analysis of variance was sibling age, with a lower percentage of agreement for young siblings and their parents than for older siblings. Similarly, one significant two-way interaction revealed that the percentage of agreement increased for older siblings when they saw their parents more frequently, but it did not increase for younger siblings. In addition, siblings reported the worst parts of the experience and what could be done to help them. Implications of these findings for clinicians and researchers are presented.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

'O sibling, where art thou?'--a review of avian sibling recognition with respect to the mammalian literature.

Avian literature on sibling recognition is rare compared to that developed by mammalian researchers. We compare avian and mammalian research on sibling recognition to identify why avian work is rare, how approaches differ and what avian and mammalian researchers can learn from each other. Three factors: (1) biological differences between birds and mammals, (2) conceptual biases and (3) practical constraints, appear to influence our current understanding. Avian research focuses on colonial species because sibling recognition is considered adaptive where 'mixing potential' of dependent young is high; research on a wider range of species, breeding systems and ecological conditions is now needed. Studies of acoustic recognition cues dominate avian literature; other types of cues (e.g. visual, olfactory) deserve further attention. The effect of gender on avian sibling recognition has yet to be investigated; mammalian work shows that gender can have important influences. Most importantly, many researchers assume that birds recognise siblings through 'direct familiarisation' (commonly known as associative learning or familiarity); future experiments should also incorporate tests for 'indirect familiarisation' (commonly known as phenotype matching). If direct familiarisation proves crucial, avian research should investigate how periods of separation influence sibling discrimination. Mammalian researchers typically interpret sibling recognition in broad functional terms (nepotism, optimal outbreeding); some avian researchers more successfully identify specific and testable adaptive explanations, with greater relevance to natural contexts. We end by reporting exciting discoveries from recent studies of avian sibling recognition that inspire further interest in this topic.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

The relationship between parent-sibling communication and coping of siblings with death experience.

Past studies have suggested that parents who can effectively communicate about subjects such as death and dying are most likely to help their child cope with illness and death. Most studies have focused on communication with the ill child and less attention has been paid to the sibling. As part of a larger study to investigate the effects of two types of terminal care on families of a child dying of cancer, this portion of the study focused on parent-sibling communication. It was hypothesized that increased communication would increase coping as manifested by fewer behavioral problems and more social competence in siblings. The tools used included the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL) and the Parent-Sibling Communication instrument. Measurements were taken before and at 2 weeks, 4 months, and 12 months after the death of the ill child. One positive and four negative correlations were found. Parent-sibling communication was positively related to Social Competence before the ill child's death, and was inversely related to Total Behavior Problems following the death. Parent-sibling communication was also inversely related to External Behavior Problems after the ill child's death, to Internal Behavior Problems after the ill child's death, and to Internal Behavior Problems at the 4-month point after the death. The positive relationship between parent-sibling communication and Social Competence scores may reflect the sensitivity of parents to siblings' needs.

Adaptation, Psychological↗