This study explored young adult siblings' use of confirming behaviors as a moderator of sibling rivalry and relational outcomes in the sibling relationship (i.e., closeness and satisfaction). Participants included 329 young adults who completed online questionnaires concerning their perceptions of their sibling relationship, including their parents' treatment of them and their siblings, sibling confirmation, sibling challenge, and closeness and satisfaction with the sibling relationship. Bivariate correlations supported the hypothesized negative associations among perceptions of parents' differential treatment (i.e., an indicator of rivalry) and sibling confirmation, challenge, closeness, and satisfaction, as well as the positive associations among sibling confirmation, challenge, closeness, and satisfaction.
Multivariate tests were conducted separately for participants' perceptions of differential parental treatment that favored them and/or their siblings, and the results of these tests provided partial support for the hypothesis that sibling confirmation would mitigate the negative effects of a sibling rivalry on sibling closeness and satisfaction. Specifically, moderate to high levels of sibling confirmation from the target sibling helped mitigate the negative effect of parents' differential treatment of the target sibling on the participant's closeness and satisfaction with the target sibling. Among the more important implications of this study is the finding that confirmation moderates the negative effect of rivalry on the sibling relationship, but only when young adults report that their sibling perceives that s/he is the recipient of their parents' differential treatment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-08082013-092842 |
| Date | 08 August 2013 |
| Creators | Phillips, Kaitlin Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Paul Schrodt, Andrew M Ledbetter, Paul L Witt |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-08082013-092842/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0096 seconds