The Contribution of Siblings to Social Comptetence

Sarah Caverly

Advisor: .

Enterprise Hall, 76
March 29, 2006, 07:00 PM to 07:00 PM

Abstract:

Children's sibling relationships represent a unique context for social and emotional development. The focus of the current study is the relation between children's sibling status, quality of sibling relationship, and children?s social competence. The contributions of both younger and older siblings were considered, as well as the influence of being an only child. It was hypothesized that sibling status (has an older sibling, has a younger sibling, has both older and younger siblings, and only children) would have a significant impact on children?s social competence as rated by peers and teachers, and observed peer interactions. The quality of the sibling relationship was also taken into consideration by including the level of sibling interaction, sibling aggression, and sibling conflict. It was believed that children with older siblings would receive a higher rating of social competence from teachers and peers in comparison to children with younger siblings, both older and younger siblings, as well as only children. Children whose sibling relationships contained high levels of aggression and/or conflict would receive lower ratings of social competence from peers and teachers. A sample of 132 children and their siblings participated in the study. The hypotheses were partially supported in that children who had a higher level of conflict in their sibling relationships were rated as significantly more aggressive by their teachers in comparison to children whose sibling relationships had lower levels of conflict. Implication of the findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.