Look Who's Talking: Mediums of Contact Among Mid-to Later-Life Siblings.

Adult siblings maintain contact and remain close to one another. The current study used participants recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 491) to conduct regression analyses examining five methods of contact (in person, telephone, email, texting, and social media) predicting sibling closeness and conflict. Further, two- and three-way interactions assessed the role of sibling dyad composition (e.g., women with a sister and women with a brother). Results suggested that as contact in person, through social media, the telephone, or email increased, sibling closeness increased, while increased contact through email indicated less conflict. Assessing sibling dyad composition suggested as telephone contact increased, sibling closeness increased for all sibling dyads, especially for women with a sister compared to men with a brother. In-person and texting contacts were beneficial for women with a brother. Even in mid- to later-life, siblings connect through synchronous and asynchronous mediums, and this contact appears beneficial for sisters.

Sibling relationships and civic engagement: A longitudinal study of Chinese young adults.

This study examined the longitudinal associations of sibling intimacy and conflict with civic attitudes and behaviours among Chinese young adults. At two time points separated by about 12 months, questionnaire data were collected from 272 Chinese college students (mean age at Time 1 = 19.68 years; 69% female), students who studied in Hong Kong and had at least one sibling. Students rated their intimacy and conflict with their siblings and their parents at Time 1, and their civic attitudes and behaviours at both time points. Hierarchical regression revealed that, controlling for demographic characteristics and parent-child intimacy and conflict, sibling intimacy predicted increases in both civic attitudes and behaviours. Sibling conflict was a non-significant predictor, however. Findings highlighted the roles of siblings in understanding civic development in young adulthood and the utility of targeting sibling intimacy as means to foster young adults' positive attitudes to and active participation in civic activities.

Integrating Parents' Views on Sibling Relationships to Tailor an Evidence-based Parenting Intervention for Sibling Conflict.

Parents play a crucial role in the development of their children's relationships with their siblings. Despite this, relatively few evidence-based parenting programs exist that specifically offer parents the strategies and techniques they desire and require for managing their children's sibling relationships. One way of bridging this gap is to design a tailored parenting intervention for sibling relationships that incorporates the parent voice in various aspects of program design. The current study recruited a convenience sample of 409 Australian parents to complete an online survey relating to their views on difficult sibling behaviors and what, if any, help they desire in dealing with the issue. The majority of respondents were Caucasian, middle- to upper-class mothers. Respondents predominantly attributed the causes of sibling conflict to their child's internal traits, but expressed strong desire for assistance with managing behavioral problems, especially when sibling relationships were marked by physical aggression. Respondents reported high levels of acceptability for positive, rather than punitive, parenting strategies and showed a clear preference for parenting interventions delivered in easy-to-access formats. The findings are interpreted in the context of guiding the development of a tailored parenting intervention for enhancing sibling relationships and reducing conflict.

Direct and Indirect Paths between Parental Marital Conflict and Children's Sibling Conflict in Chinese Families.

Links between parental marital conflict and children's sibling conflict have been well examined; however, the underlying mechanism of this link needs to be further studied. This study investigated the mediating role of parental intervention styles (i.e. child-centered strategies, control strategies, and nonintervention strategies) and children's control behavior toward their sibling between parental marital conflict and children's sibling conflict. We recruited 689 Chinese children (53.7% girls) aged 8-13 years to participate in the study. Results indicated that parental marital conflict, control strategies, nonintervention strategies, and children's control behavior toward sibling were positively associated with sibling conflict among children. Child-centered strategies were negatively correlated with children's sibling conflict. Furthermore, control and nonintervention strategies of parents and control behavior of children toward sibling simultaneously partially mediated between parental marital and child-sibling conflict. The mediating role of child-centered strategies was not significant. These findings suggest that parental strategies of control and nonintervention and children's control behavior toward their sibling may increase the risk of sibling conflict among children after repeated exposure to parental marital conflict. In contrast, child-centered strategies may be a protective factor for children regarding sibling conflict. Current findings confirm the combined effects of parent and child behavior on child-sibling conflict. They also help parents deal with sibling conflict among their children and promote more positive relationships among siblings.

Sibling conflict during COVID-19 in families with special educational needs and disabilities.

Young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SENDs) and their families have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this longitudinal study, sibling conflict in these families during and after the first lockdown in the United Kingdom was investigated. Online questionnaires were completed by 504 parents of young people with SENDs at four time points between 23 March 2020 and 10 October 2020 (over half completed the questionnaire at multiple time points). As lockdown progressed, young people with SENDs were more likely to be picked on or hurt by their siblings compared with earlier stages of the lockdown but there was no change in how frequently they harmed or picked on their siblings. After lockdown, both perpetration and victimization decreased but not to the same rates as the first month of lockdown. Young people with SENDs with severe or complex needs were somewhat protected from sibling conflict. Findings are discussed with reference to implications for support and planning for future pandemics.

Observations of infant conflict and avoidance in San Martin titi monkeys (Plecturocebus oenanthe).

Conflict between caregivers and infants typically centers on disagreements over the amount and frequency of care provided. Prior research has identified many variables that impact patterns of mother-infant conflict. These include wide-ranging factors such as individual temperament, reproductive status, and availability of resources. By contrast, no studies have investigated the variables that influence father-infant conflict. To better understand the nature of caregiver-infant conflict in a species with obligate biparental care, I observed two groups of San Martin titi monkeys inhabiting disturbed secondary forest fragments in the San Martín region of Peru. Using instantaneous focal sampling of infants, I recorded physical conflict between infants and caregivers and instances of infant avoidance (leaving the infant) by adult males. I summarized data as the percentage of records in which these activities occurred for each focal day and report the estimates for caregivers. I further calculated mean percentages by month of infant age to assess the relative timing of infant conflict, for each group and age/sex class, and infant avoidance by males. Percentages of conflict and avoidance were markedly higher in the larger group living in a smaller habitat than in the other group. This pattern occurred across all age/sex classes. In both groups, the greatest amount of infant conflict occurred with siblings. I discuss the substantial variation in conflict and avoidance in relation to the various socioecological conditions that may have played a role. This study provides an in-depth description and exploration of parent-offspring and sibling conflict, which has not been examined previously in this species.

The State of Interventions for Sibling Conflict and Aggression: A Systematic Review.

Sibling conflict and aggression is often a pervasive part of family life that parents want help managing and can have negative effects on children's well-being. The purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate current research regarding programs to reduce sibling conflict and aggression and promote positive sibling relationships. Online databases, reference lists, and Google Scholar were searched using key words and inclusion/exclusion criteria were applied. The search located five unique studies of programs focused on school-aged children. Heterogeneity of the studies precluded meta-analysis, but characteristics of the studies were systematically described. Three interventions were aimed at directly improving children's social skills and two interventions trained parents on mediation techniques to use during sibling conflicts. Overall, of the four studies that included assessment of children's social skills, the results were positive. Two of the three studies that evaluated sibling relationship quality demonstrated improved sibling interactions compared with the control group. With further research and evidentiary support, these programs have promise to modify sibling behaviors as part of current parenting education programs or as a stand-alone program to address sibling conflict and aggression.