The purpose of this review is to examine the literature on siblings and sibling relationships. To outline the importance of this under-researched field the review details the link between sibling relationship quality and individual psychosocial outcome. Initial research into the area started with investigations of the influence of structural variables and temperament on sibling relationship quality but found that they explained only a small proportion of the variance in sibling relationship quality. Associations between sibling relationships and peer relationships have been found but as yet no studies investigated the direction of causality. The nature of the parent-child relationship has been found to be a strong predictor of the quality of the sibling relationship. Further investigations have discovered that how parents treat children differently is not only related to the quality of the sibling relationship but also to psychosocial adjustment. Where greater differential experience is perceived it is associated with poorer sibling relationship quality and more problem behaviours.

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Traditionally childhood, the sibling relationship and support have all been the domain of psychological, outcome based research. This positivist approach was challenged by the child centred perspective which recognises children as competent social actors negotiating and constructing their relationships and is interested in the perspective of the children. Adopting a child centred approach to investigating support in the sibling relationship .allows us to hear the childrens accounts of how they experience and perceive their relationship and the support within it. A child centred approach was taken throughout the study. Thirty six children from 18 sibling pairs were interviewed at three time points over the academic year. Data was co-produced with the children in a variety of ways as a choice of child centred conversational prompts were available within the interviews. This also allowed the childen to dictate the direction of the interview and take more control. By keeping the emphasis on the children's perspectives during analysis, support emerged strongly as a theme from the data. There were generally two types of support; support acknowledged by at least one member of the dyad and support unacknowledged by both members of the dyad. The acknowledged support the children described included the practical and emotional support they experienced and offered to each other, often in ways which showed just how well they knew each other. The major concern of the children, however, was play. On further investigation it became clear that play was so important to the children because play was the practice through which they constructed and negotiated their sibling relationships. The unacknowledged support that the siblings received was generally in the form of preparation for life. Particularly through conflict and aspects of play the children learned transferable life skills, such as dealing with power issues or competition. A sub group of the younger children also illustrated the importance of demonstrating that life must go on at times of difficulty. By maintaining a child centred perspective to research it is possible to see that the sibling relationship is a significant source of support in childhood in a variety of ways.

Background: It is argued that sibling relationships are often overlooked in favour of parent child relationships. Sibling interactions have the potential to be emotionally intimate and complex, and experiences can influence later psychological development. Research exploring the significance of sibling relationships is developing, with the majority of studies focussing on the protective nature of this relationship. There has been limited curiosity into the expression of adults’ stories of being bullied by a sibling in childhood. By exploring people’s stories, this study aims to consider what it means to be bullied by a sibling – that is, it will explore the broad question of “how do adults describe and make sense of their childhood sibling bullying experiences?” Method: A qualitative research paradigm was chosen for this study. The method of narrative inquiry was employed, using the Narrative Orientated Inquiry approach. Interviews were completed with seven adults who perceived themselves to have been bullied by a sibling in childhood. Results: Adults’ experiences were understood within the context of content and form. The content of people’s stories were considered alongside the way in which they told their story, facilitating an understanding of what and how they integrated their experiences into the construction of their narrative identities. Adults described their perceptions of sibling bullying and the barriers to defining experience, as well as the impact on their later, sibling relationships. The results also indicated that emotional expression associated with the event varied for every narrator, as they moved towards integration of experience. Discussion: The findings are discussed within existing theoretical models of sibling bullying and subject and identity positioning theory. The clinical implications are framed within psychoanalytic theory and in relation to the perceived acceptability of sibling bullying.

The overarching goal of this thesis was to examine sibling relationship quality in young twin children, as well as the ways in which this key bond is associated with other familial relationships within the home environment. The three articles included were part of a longitudinal and multi-method study, run by myself and my colleague - the Twins, Family and Behaviour study. Accounts were collected from 282 mothers and 132 fathers of twins, over a two-year time period. Parents completed postal questionnaires and a telephone interview, and observations via Skype recorded them interacting with each of their children. The research was unique, as it employed a number of novel measures and sophisticated analyses that have not yet been used within a longitudinal twin sample such as this. Results showed that, contrary to expectations, no mean level differences emerged when monozygotic twin pairs, dizygotic twin pairs, and non-twin pairs were compared on their sibling relationship quality (Paper 1). Behavioural genetic modelling also revealed that sibling interactions were mainly influenced by the shared environment, common to both children within the dyad, but also by the genetic propensities of the siblings themselves (Paper 1). Using the innovative Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample interview, we found that mothers who expressed more family-wide positive, and less family-wide negative, emotion towards their children reported more positivity within the sibling relationship – even when controlling for questionnaire measures of the mother-child relationship (Paper 2). Finally, opposing the majority of past literature, cross-lagged tests evidenced that earlier positivity within the sibling bond was predictive of later marital satisfaction, and of positivity within both the mother-child and the father-child bond (Paper 3). The implications of the findings include: the generalisability of studies of twins in childhood to the wider non-twin sibling population (Paper 1); the usefulness of maternal speech sample measures in capturing unique variance in sibling relationship quality (Paper 2); and the impact of affectionate sibling exchanges on entire family systems (Paper 3). Future research would benefit from exploring the nature of the relationship between twin brothers and sisters further, using both younger and older children's reports of their family interactions, within a more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample.