NCJ Number
234346
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 40 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2011 Pages: 490-501
Date Published
April 2011
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article examines the associations between sibling relationships and parental support.
Abstract
Sibling relationships and parental support are important for adolescents' development and well-being, yet both are likely to change during adolescence. Since adolescents participate in both the sibling relationship and the parent-child relationship, we can expect sibling relationships and parental support to be associated with each other. Theoretically, it can be expected that there is either a spillover from one relationship to another (congruence hypothesis) or that one relationship can compensate for the other (compensation hypothesis). However, research examining these associations in adolescence is limited. The present study longitudinally investigated the bidirectional associations between sibling relationships and parental support during adolescence. For 5 consecutive years, data were collected using self-reports of 428 families, consisting of a father, a mother, and 2 adolescent siblings. The mean ages of the first-born (52.8 percent males) and second-born (47.7 percent males) were 15 and 13 years at T1, respectively. For the second-born siblings, prospective associations were found between sibling relationships and adolescent-reported parental support in early adolescence, with no differences between same-sex and mixed-sex dyads. These associations were not found for first-born siblings or for parents' reports of support. The findings suggest a spillover from the sibling relationship to adolescent-reported parental support only in early adolescence. Findings and implications are discussed in terms of the congruence/spillover and the compensation hypothesis. (Published Abstract)