Three empirical studies comprising this dissertation were carried out to provide a more comprehensive understanding of concurrent measures of both predictors and outcomes of young adolescents' sibling interactions. The participants included older siblings (M age = 14.3), younger siblings (M age = 11.6), and their mothers from approximately 450 families who completed web-based surveys.Study one examined correlates of overt and relational aggression between young adolescent siblings. Family environment emerged as an important factor in explaining internalizing problems as well as overt/relational aggression for both younger and older siblings. Findings also provided partial support for the positive linkages between young adolescents' aggression and their own and siblings' internalizing problems above and beyond family and maternal variables. The main purpose of the study two was to investigate self-criticism as a potential mediating factor in the link between mother-child relationships and aggression or perceptions of social competence. Maternal self-criticism strongly corresponded to the quality of relationships with children, and an intergenerational similarity of self-criticism, particularly for older children, was found. Mother-child relationships and adolescent self-criticism were significantly related to aggression and perceptions of social competence. In addition, the link between mother-child relationships and aggression or social competence is mediated, in part, by self-criticism in adolescents. Using social control theory and attachment theory as guides, study three examined how qualities of young adolescents' social relationships (i.e., mother, sibling, and friend), and dynamic interactions among characteristics of those relationships, are associated with school involvement and delinquency. Results were largely consistent with tenets of social control theory and attachment theory. Young adolescents' social relationships were associated with their adjustment in ways that are protective or beneficial. Furthermore, these social affordances worked additively and in compensatory ways to promote positive adjustment. Positive relationship qualities tended to amplify other relational influences promoting successful development, and these findings were invariant across gender.While optimal mother-child relationships are central in nurturing the child's capacity to develop warm and harmonious sibling relationships in both a direct and an indirect manner, there is a considerable contribution of siblings to adjustment and socialization above and beyond the effects of mother-child relationships.

The funtioning of families of children with developmental disabilities has been of interest to researchers for some time. To date, little research has focused on experiences of New Zealand families. The aim of this research is to investigate relationships between various aspects of the family environment and family functioning, and to explore siblings' level of self-concept and satisfaction with the sibling relationship. It is expected that families who receive more support from external levels of the environment will be able to function more effectively in their immediate environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Hornby, 1994). Twenty-one parents and nineteen siblings of children with developmental disabilities volunteered to take part in this study. Parent participants completed questionnaires about family demographics, the level of support received from external sources, their perceptions of the family environment, and level of stress related to child characteristics; pessimism and family problems. Sibling participants completed questionnaires about their satisfaction with the relationship with their brother or sister, their self-concept, and their own perceptionso of the family environment. The results indicate that there are a number of relationships between various aspects of the environment and family functioning. Siblings who are more satisfied with their relationship have higher self-concept scores, however the self-concept scores were lower than expected. Families who receive higher levels of support have more positive perceptions of the family enviornment, and families who have more support and more positive views of the environment have few concerns on the resources and stress scale. The results indicated that families consider that they are receiving adequate support from professional services, however support from family and friends appears to be lacking. This study has provided insight into the functioning of New Zealand families who have children with developmental disabilities, and has suggested a number of avenues for future research.

The topic of this thesis is the sibling constellation theory. This theory says that the order of birth can affect many areas of life. The aim of this thesis is to verify this theory. The theoretical part of the thesis defines the term sibling constellation and briefly describes the history of research connected with this theory along with information about differences between certain author´s interpretations. The thesis also deals with the upbringing stereotypes that cause differences between individuals born in a certain order and with the description of their typical personality traits. The practical part of the thesis concentrates on verifying of sibling constellation theory through a questionnaire. The questionnaire is based on facts about each sibling position that were learned from literature and deals with the relationship between respondent´s parents and siblings in order to reveal possible rivalry and jealousy in their family environment.

When analyzing the development of children and adolescents, the most attention is usually paid to parents. Other older members of a family, however, have an important role, too. The crucial, yet often neglected person (at least in Czech literature), impacting the development of an individual, is his or her older sibling. The subject of the theoretical part of this thesis is to clarify the specifics of a sibling relationship as well as to describe the role and the sphere of influence of the older sibling considering all the factors that come into the relationship between two siblings. The empirical part consists of the description of the research project and the results of the research, whose aim is to discover the specifics of a sibling relationship with a particular focus on the upbringing styles of the older sibling; to find differences between the upbringing methods of parents and the upbringing methods of older siblings; and to find out to what extent the gender and the age difference between siblings determines their mutual relationship. Keywords: siblings, sibling relationships, the role of a sibling, upbringing, methods of upbringing

A positive sibling relationship may protect individuals against poor developmental outcomes associated with psychological maltreatment. The current study assessed the moderating role of a positive sibling relationship in childhood and adulthood on associations between early psychological maltreatment and adult attachment anxiety and avoidance. College students (N = 270) completed self-report measures of psychological maltreatment, sibling relationship quality, and adult attachment. Psychological maltreatment in childhood was associated with an increase in attachment anxiety and avoidance, while a positive sibling relationship was related to a decrease in levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance. As predicted, a positive childhood sibling relationship mitigated the negative effects of psychological neglect in childhood on attachment. Similarly, a positive sibling relationship decreased the levels of attachment anxiety associated with isolation in childhood.

Partner violence is a recognized phenomenon in Sweden. Unfortunately, sibling violence does not seem to be noticed at all. Thoughts regarding whether there is any reason to differentiate between violence between adults and violence between siblings arose, which is why the purpose of the study is to compare differences between sibling violence and violence between adults. In summary, the results show that both violence between adults and sibling violence is a normalized violence in society, even though sibling violence seems to be even more normalized. In addition, the results show as in previous research that all forms of violence, such as physical, psychological, material and latent violence, are found in both sibling violence and partner violence. Even though, there is some disagreement about how they should be named. Finally, the essay shows how violence arises as a result of powerlessness, which is why the importance of defining violence based on the function of the action has been identified as necessary.

Sibling relationship quality is affected by several variables, such as gender, age spacing, marital conflicts, parenting, and parent-child relationship, which simultaneously influence personality and developmental outcomes. Furthermore, sibling relationships can significantly influence the social climate of the family and vice versa. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of household composition (1-parent home vs. 2-parent home) and the number of years between siblings ages on sibling relationship quality, and to determine whether parental conflict response management strategies differ between single-parent and 2-parent homes. The participants were 124 adult mothers with at least 2 children. Participants provided demographic information and completed the Parental Expectations and Perceptions of Children's Sibling Relationships Questionnaire to measure sibling relationship quality and the Parental Conflict Management Strategies to measure parental responses to sibling conflict. The 4 research questions were assessed using a quantitative design that used 2-factor multivariate analysis of variance and a chi-square test of independence. The result revealed that household type affected sibling rivalry such that 1-parent households reported less sibling rivalry than 2-parent households. The results also showed that there is no preference for any specific conflict management strategy for sibling conflict among single-parent and two-parent households. Social change implications may result from this study based on a better understanding of how sibling relationship quality has been affected by different family dynamics, such as changes in household composition.

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With the abundance of literature focusing on parental influence in sport, it is important to identify family dynamics that extend beyond parents to include siblings. In this study, sibling influence was explored though interviews with previously identified elite youth female athletes (N=4) and their sibling (N=4) of the same sex who participated in the same sport. The purpose was to discover how siblings influence sport participation and how parents influence sibling relationships, retrospectively. Three categories emerged from the data: positive experiences participating in the same sport, negative experiences participating in the same sport, and perception of the parental role. The participants’ descriptions coincide with observational learning and both deidentification and divergence processes. The data adds to the probable sibling and parent experiences proposed in the Developmental Model of Sport Participation and provides insight for athletes, parents, and coaches on how to manage sibling relations in sport. / October 2015

The study of the loss of a sibling in mainstream bereavement literature has been largely neglected in psychology. This sentiment has often, and still continues, to be expressed by those outside and within the psychological field. The focus in the childhood bereavement literature has been on the loss of a parent and, in adulthood, on the loss of a child or of a spouse. Despite the growing interest in sibling loss in more recent times (since the 1980s), more specifically in childhood and adolescent sibling loss, in reality bereaved siblings remain ‘forgotten’ and even marginalised. The present study concerned the experience of the loss of a brother or sister in young adulthood, an area that has been largely neglected. The phenomenon was explored using a qualitative approach and employing the empirical phenomenological psychological research method as articulated by Amedeo Giorgi. In-depth interviews with three research participants who were asked to describe their experience of the loss of their sibling were used to gather the data. The emphasis was on discovery, on allowing the siblings to speak for themselves by posing an open-ended question rather than focusing on isolated aspects of the loss experience. The general psychological structure revealed that the experience of the loss of a brother or sister evolves over time and cannot meaningfully be understood as an event that can be contained within a specified moment in time. The experience is a fundamentally relational and paradoxical phenomenon and is reflective of the context in which it occurs. With the loss, the sibling's whole world changes in a very radical way. It is a triple loss: the loss of the brother or sister, the loss of the family unit and the 'loss' of the parents as the siblings had known them. Initially bereaved siblings put aside their grief in an attempt to protect parents and significant others. A conspiracy of silence evolves which conceals their pain and as they continue with life as ‘normal’ there is a deceptive belief of ‘coping well’, of personal stability. Yet internally the bereaved sibling struggles with intense emotions and a lonely struggle ensues. The lack of acknowledgement of the sibling’s grief by others compounds the sense of isolation and alienation and he/she begins to feel like an “implicated alien”, a participant-spectator; part-of and also apart-from the grief situation. Finding a safe space to grieve is critical to bereaved siblings and when this is possible they are able to let go of their deep emotions and grieve the loss of their brother or sister. The loss of a sibling is the experience of losing various parts of the self and needing to reclaim and reintegrate self. The main contribution of this study can be described as providing insights concerning the complex, multi-layered and multi-dimensional process of this loss experience to clinicians and others who care for bereaved siblings. Where the extant psychoanalytic and object relations literature is willing to concede that a sibling relationship exists, screened behind parental relationships, the present study reveals that siblings have a unique relationship of their own and that the loss of this relationship demands radical mourning. This study also reveals that death in the family is a fundamentally relational experience. The loss of a sibling and the loss of a child frequently overlap and tumble into each other and it is difficult to know for whom the sibling is grieving at any particular moment. Thus, grief over the loss of a brother or sister cannot be reduced to a purely intra-psychic or psycho-social process. The fact that sibling grief is not visible, does not mean that it does not exist. Clinicians and caregivers need to be aware of the existential chaos, the trauma, and the ambiguous and paradoxical nature of the sorrow experienced by a sibling-who-loses-a-sibling. Future research into the loss of a brother or sister beyond young and middle adulthood, an area that has also largely been neglected, would constitute an important contribution to the psychology of siblings and of sibling loss/bereavement throughout the life cycle. Also significant would be the exploration of what happens in the sibling group following the loss of one of their members. / Thesis (PhD (Psychotherapy))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted