In families whose parents had never divorced, families with a single mother, and families whose mother had remarried, there were (1) some differences for child gender and family type in children's behavior toward siblings; (2) few effects of gender composition of sibling dyads; and (3) a decline in the level of sibling interaction over time. (BC)

Investigates changes in children's socioemotional development, achievement, and self-concept after the birth of a sibling. Data from a national longitudinal survey of preschool-aged children, over a two-year and a four-year period, indicate that a sibling's birth accompanied significant, albeit temporary, increases in children's behavior problems.…

Mothers' and fathers' responses to their children's spontaneous sibling conflicts were observed. Findings indicated that associations between parents' conflict management strategy and sibling interaction quality varied according to children's ages, gender of the monitoring parent, and type of strategy. Passive nonintervention was highly associated…

Three studies examined mothers' reactions to and thoughts about sibling conflict and aggression. Most mothers attributed sibling conflict to a variety of factors. Maternal intervention was related to contextual factors, including mothers' own tolerance. Although preschoolers' mothers expected that physical aggression would decline with increasing…

Examined role of support from a well-adjusted older sibling for positive adjustment of disadvantaged inner-city adolescents. Found that sibling support was nonsignificantly related to delinquency, academic success, and mental health for younger siblings. Only when accompanied by a positive image of their older sibling was support associated with…

Sibling relationships appear important in fostering young children's growing theory-of-mind skills, but the quality of sibling interactions has rarely been investigated directly in relation to children's mental-state awareness (e.g. as indexed by talk about perceptions, desires, feelings, cognitions, i.e. inner state talk; IST). This study…

Although some friction among siblings is inevitable, there are some general guidelines for avoiding unnecessary conflict: (1) downplay competition between siblings; (2) avoid comparisons; (3) recognize that relationships change; (4) treat siblings fairly; and (5) recognize close sibling bonds. (CB)

This paper uses measured sibling resemblance to explore the importance of family background as a determinant of welfare program participation. The results indicate a high degree of sibling resemblance in welfare receipt. (JOW)

Twenty-seven pairs of gifted children and their siblings completed questionnaires on the sibling relationship. Siblings perceived competition differently: Ss labeled gifted appeared to benefit from competition in terms of self-concept while unlabeled Ss reported negative effects. Both labeled and unlabeled siblings perceived more friction if the…

The younger sister of Down's Syndrome girl describes her guilt from growing up with a family that did not encourage open discussion of feelings. She eventualy learned from other siblings how to deal with her negative feelings. (CL)

Analysis of scores on the Family Relations Test completed by 22 gifted and 25 nongifted children (six-16 years old) in 20 families revealed that relationships among siblings were more affected by giftedness than parent-child relationships. Nongifted Ss perceived their sibling relationships more positively than did gifted Ss. (CL)

Research is critically reviewed and evaluated to determine if the presence of a handicapped child in a family uniquely affects the nonhandicapped siblings and to identify factors mediating the nature and power of those effects. In addition, projects involving sibling therapy, education, and training are described. (Author/CL)

Upon reading vignettes portraying a student's sibling as behavior disordered (BD), 64 special education teachers were asked to recommend placement for the student. Ss indicated that a BD placement was more appropriate for the student with a disturbed sibling than for an identically described student with a nonhandicapped sibling. (CL)