Children in middle childhood were surveyed in elementary schools
to explore possible associations between their perceptions about certain
characteristics of their sibling relationships and the ways in which
their parents responded to sibling quarrels.
An instrument was developed to measure perceptions of types of parental responses and the
Sibling Relationship Questionnaire was used to assess sibling conflict,
warmth/closeness, and perceptions of parental partiality. Factor
analyses revealed that the parental responses of punishing, prohibiting,
and group discipline were closely related, reflecting a single dimension
(alpha=.81). Labeled restricting, regression analyses indicated that
this type of parental response to sibling quarrels was a strong positive
predictor of sibling conflict, a negative predictor of sibling
warmth/closeness, and unrelated to perceptions of parental partiality.
The contributions of the other types of parental responses to the
aspects of sibling relationships studied were different for girls and
boys. Parental referring to family rules contributed positively to
girls' sibling conflict, and negatively to sibling warmth/closeness.
Parental mediating conciliation, particularly by mothers, was a strong
positive predictor of boys' sibling warmth/closeness. Parental
mediating conciliation negatively contributed to boys' sibling conflict,
particularly fathers' mediating conciliation. Nonintervention by
parents, particularly fathers' nonintervention, was a strong positive
predictor of boys' sibling conflict, and contributed positively to boys'
perceptions of parental partiality, as well. However, among girls,
fathers' nonintervention positively contributed to sibling
warmth/closeness and negatively contributed to partiality. Boys
perceived more sibling conflict than girls, but other sibling
constellation and family structure variables did not contribute
significantly to the aspects of sibling relationships studied. / Graduation date: 1995
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35165 |
| Date | 10 February 1995 |
| Creators | Ozretich, Rachel A. |
| Contributors | Sugawara, Alan I. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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