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Why Siblings Are Important Agents of Cognitive Development: A Comparison of Siblings and Peers
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This study explored older siblings' and peers' influence on young children's cognitive development. Although we anticipated many similarities in siblings' and peers' influence, our principal goal was to test the hypothesis that siblings are unique agents of cognitive development. Young children, their older siblings, and an older, familiar peer first participated in an unstructured building session where each built their own construction. Then, one of the older children taught the younger child how to copy a model windmill. Finally, the younger child was given an individual posttest in which he or she copied the windmill. Although there were many similarities in older siblings' and peers' guidance, the results highlighted the uniqueness of the sibling relationship. In the unstructured building session, young children were more likely to observe, imitate, and consult their older siblings than their older peers, and older siblings were more likely than older peers to provide them with guidance spontaneously. In the teaching session, older siblings provided more explanations and positive feedback and gave learners more control of the task than older peers. However, older siblings' behavior was not independent from the learners', as young children often prompted the siblings' explanations and pressured them into giving them more control of the task. These differences in teaching and learning strategies affected young children's task mastery; Children taught by siblings obtained higher posttest scores than children taught by peers. The discussion interprets these findings within the context of shared and unique functions of siblings and peers in cognitive development and highlights the role of the learner in promoting his or her own development.
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... Older siblings do not have all the expertise parents do, but they are usually more skilled than their younger siblings. Researchers have shown that younger children frequently use their older siblings' behavior as a model to guide their own behavior (Abramovitch, Corter, Peplei;& Stanhope, 1986;Dunn, 1983), that younger children frequently accept the role of novice or learner when interacting with their older siblings in game-like settings (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Brody, Stoneman, & MacKinnon, 1982; PEREZ-GRANADOS AND CALLANAN Stoneman, Brody, & MacKinnon, 1984;Zukow, 1989), and that older siblings frequently play the role of initiator, teacher, and manager when interacting or performing tasks with their younger siblings (Abramovitch et al., 1986;Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Brody et al., 1982;Dunn & Kendrick, 1982b;Stewart, 1983;Stoneman et al., 1984). Thus, there is some evidence that older siblings may provide guidance and assistance to their younger siblings and that younger siblings are receptive to that guidance and assistance. ...
... Older siblings do not have all the expertise parents do, but they are usually more skilled than their younger siblings. Researchers have shown that younger children frequently use their older siblings' behavior as a model to guide their own behavior (Abramovitch, Corter, Peplei;& Stanhope, 1986;Dunn, 1983), that younger children frequently accept the role of novice or learner when interacting with their older siblings in game-like settings (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Brody, Stoneman, & MacKinnon, 1982; PEREZ-GRANADOS AND CALLANAN Stoneman, Brody, & MacKinnon, 1984;Zukow, 1989), and that older siblings frequently play the role of initiator, teacher, and manager when interacting or performing tasks with their younger siblings (Abramovitch et al., 1986;Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Brody et al., 1982;Dunn & Kendrick, 1982b;Stewart, 1983;Stoneman et al., 1984). Thus, there is some evidence that older siblings may provide guidance and assistance to their younger siblings and that younger siblings are receptive to that guidance and assistance. ...
... It was not clear whether we could expect similar findings when we compared mothers with siblings. Because of the close emotional ties between siblings, younger children may learn more effectively from older siblings than from acquaintances (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993). In our study, we compared mothers and siblings as teachers in a classification task. ...
This study compared teaching and learning measures of 16 mother–child and sibling dyads playing a picture categorization game. Target children (mean age = 3 years 11 months) participated in 2 separate sessions, 1 with their mother and 1 with their older sibling (mean age = 6 years 11 months). Although siblings' teaching styles directed target children to make the correct choices, mothers provided information to help target children make choices on their own. Mothers labeled objects and categories more than siblings. Although target children scored higher with siblings than with mothers, this was because siblings categorized about half of the pictures themselves. Target children labeled objects and categories more with mothers than with siblings. These findings suggest important differences in how mothers and siblings interpreted the goals of the task, offering target children different teaching styles from which to learn.
... Positive and supportive sibling relationships tend to have a beneficial effect on executive functioning, while toxic or conflict-ridden relationships may hinder its development [8]. Positive and supportive sibling relationships are associated with better executive control in children [9]. Meanwhile, closer age gaps provide more opportunities for shared activities and experiences, which can promote the development of executive functions [9]. ...
... Positive and supportive sibling relationships are associated with better executive control in children [9]. Meanwhile, closer age gaps provide more opportunities for shared activities and experiences, which can promote the development of executive functions [9]. Furthermore, Azmitia concluded that executive functioning and theory of mind are closely related, as cognitive processes play a crucial role in the development of theory of mind [10]. ...
The impact of siblings on the executive functioning and theory of mind in children is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Siblings have the potential to influence each other’s cognitive development through various forms of interaction, such as negotiation, cooperation, and conflicts. This paper summarizes the relationship between siblings, executive functioning, and theory of mind through reviewing previous research. It discusses whether siblings directly contribute to changes in executive functioning and theory of mind or if other factors, such as age difference and gender, play a role. This article discusses the importance of identifying the significant role of siblings in shaping executive functioning and theory of mind and provides an overview of research findings and potential influencing factors. By focusing on processes influenced by older siblings, this review article will provide a deeper understanding of how sibling interactions may impact younger children’s cognitive functioning. Future research should encompass different cultural backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and family structures to increase generalizability and can help to understand the contexts of the correlation between siblings and cognitive functioning.
... More recently, emphasis has also been placed on the active role of the younger child in social situations. Children tend to observe, imitate, and seek assistance from their older siblings, and older siblings, in turn, are more likely to teach them how to play games, to develop physical skills, and to use toys (Abramovitch, Corter, & Lando, 1979;Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Dunn & Kendrick, 1982). In general problem solving, children tend to direct more questions at, and seek more assistance from, older siblings in comparison with older peers (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993). ...
... Children tend to observe, imitate, and seek assistance from their older siblings, and older siblings, in turn, are more likely to teach them how to play games, to develop physical skills, and to use toys (Abramovitch, Corter, & Lando, 1979;Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Dunn & Kendrick, 1982). In general problem solving, children tend to direct more questions at, and seek more assistance from, older siblings in comparison with older peers (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993). ...
Results from 4 experiments and an analysis in which all data from 444 English and Japanese children are pooled show (a) a linear increase in understanding false belief with the number of older siblings, (b) no such effect for children younger than 3 years 2 months, (c) no helpful effect of younger siblings at any age (despite the large sample), (d) no effect of siblings’ gender, and (e) no helpful effect of siblings on a task measuring children’s understanding of how they know something. Discussion involves speculation about how older siblings may assist children (e.g., through pretend play and mental state language) and how different aspects of a theory of mind may develop through different means.
... Second, the nature of the kits informed by the ill-structured nature of the tasks encouraged siblings to work well with one another, an epistemic practice highlighted by Cunningham and Kelly (2017) as one of the ways that engineers engage in the profession. While research on sibling interactions highlights positive outcomes such as relationship building (Houen et al., 2021), cognitive development (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993), emotional understanding (Kramer, 2014), and shared knowledge and perspective taking (Danby et al., 2018), there is little research on sibling interactions within STEM education and, more specifically, within engineering-focused tasks and opportunities. Third, families with a parent in a non-STEM career experienced impacts and experiences similar to families with a parent in a STEM career. ...
... When children in a traditionally organized school were asked to collaborate, they tended to use test and quiz formats rather than building on one another's efforts (Matusov, Bell, & Rogoff, 2002). However, when spaces are designed to encourage mutual coordination and collaboration where people work together, some studies with middle-class U.S. children have found that nonverbal interaction and modeling were effective teaching strategies for young siblings working together (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993) as well as for U.S. college students' collaboration (Apedoe, Mattis, Rowden-Quince, & Schunn, 2010;Azmitia & Crowley, 2001). ...
... Siblings' relationships influence both the individuals involved and the whole family system. Many studies discussed the importance of sibling relationships: it significantly affects children's development, particularly in social and emotional aspects [4]; it is a pervasive and long-term relationship [55] -most adults maintain their contacts with siblings throughout their lives; a good siblings relationship can alleviate loneliness and depression [36,86]. The sibling subsystem plays an important role in family structure's continuity as well [18,53]. ...
Siblings play a crucial and long-lasting role in family connections and relationships. However, with the older sibling transitioning out of their parental home, maintaining a close sibling relationship can be challenging, especially if siblings have a large age difference. We conducted a diary and interview study with nine families in China which have spaced siblings, to identify design opportunities for technology to better support their communication and connection needs. We contribute to the HCI community in three aspects. First, we contribute an empirical understanding of current communication patterns from distributed families with large age gap siblings in China. Second, we identify current facilitation roles, practices, and challenges regarding sibling relationships from different stake-holders' perspectives. Last but not least, we present technological opportunities for supporting the large-gap sibling relationship, informing directions for future research and design for distributed families. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; Empirical studies in collaborative and social computing; • Social and professional topics → Children.
... The children also described how they compensated the lack of positive interactions with their parents by seeking support and security outside this dyad, through siblings, friends and pets. Siblings' unique role in promoting child development and compensating for dysfunctional child-parent relations has been explored in previous research, as well as the positive impact of pets on child development (e.g., Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Melson, 2003;Milevsky & Levitt, 2005;Triebenbacher, 1998). ...
Over the past 50 years, extensive research has been published on the parent–child relationship and parenting. However, there are very few examples where young children are at the centre of attention for describing family dynamics, relationships and conflicts. This study aimed at addressing this research and knowledge gap through exploring the emotional and relational experiences of preschool children whose parents attended a universal parenting programme. Seventeen preschool children aged 3–6 were interviewed, using an emotion-focused, pictorial-based computer assisted interview method. The children’s descriptions of their family relationships were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The children described negative interplay within the families in rich detail, especially experiences where conflicts with parents escalated and were left unresolved. Moments of positive family interactions were described as well, but they were heavily overshadowed by the narratives containing negative parenting. The children also described compensatory behaviours, such as looking for comfort from siblings or pets. The narratives in this study gave a unique insight into the emotional and relational domestic context of children in families seeking universally offered parenting support. Given adequate tools and support, children as young as 3 or 4 years old could provide extensive information about their lives. We urge future research examining parenting or family interventions to include the children’s perspectives.
... For example, counter to Adler's dethronement model, most young children show broadly positive responses to the arrival of a new baby (Volling, 2012). In the primary school years, older siblings have been shown to play an active role in teaching or supporting young siblings (Azmitia & Hesser, 1993;Prime et al., 2017). With regards to our study's focus on young children (aged 3-to 8-years), it is worth noting that meta-analytic results (K = 34, N = 12, 257) indicate that sibling influences on child adjustment problems are significantly stronger in childhood than in adolescence (Buist et al., 2013). ...
Supportive family relationships may mitigate the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on young children's adjustment, but existing work is limited by its focus on within‐country variation and parental influences. Addressing these gaps, and drawing on reported buffering effects of older siblings on child mental health (Lawson and Mace, 2010), the current international study examined whether child adjustment problems were, on average, elevated by the pandemic and whether this buffering effect of older siblings would be maintained. In the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic (April to July 2020), 2516 parents of 3‐ to 8‐year‐old children living in Australia, China, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States of America—six countries with contrasting governmental responses to the pandemic—completed an online survey about family experiences and relationships and child adjustment, as indexed by ratings on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ: R. Goodman, 1997). As expected, child SDQ total difficulty scores were elevated in all sites except Sweden (which notably did not enforce mass school closures). Compared to children without siblings, children with one or more older siblings showed fewer adjustment problems. Children from lone‐parent households displayed more adjustment problems, as did those whose parents reported increased sibling conflict. Finally, child adjustment problems were negatively associated with family socio‐economic status, but positively related to the indices of Covid‐19 family disruption and government stringency. We discuss these findings in relation to existing work on asymmetric effects of older versus younger siblings, and siblings as sources of support.
Objective
To consider whether one sibling's criminal legal system contact influences another's material conditions, social support, and mental health and behavioral problems.
Background
Sibling incarceration is both the most common form of familial incarceration in the United States, with more than one in four Americans reporting ever experiencing this event, and highly unequally distributed. Despite how prevalent and unequally distributed sibling criminal legal system contact is, little research considers the consequences of that event for family life. This study seeks to partially fill that gap by testing whether and how a sibling's criminal legal system contact is associated with changes in the material conditions, social support, and wellbeing of caregivers and other children.
Method
Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the authors estimate hierarchical linear models to consider the relationship between sibling criminal legal system contact and three core indicators of familial and child wellbeing: familial (1) social support and (2) material insecurity, and (3) child wellbeing, as indicated by behavioral and mental health problems using validated scales.
Results
Sibling criminal legal system contact is associated with a reduction in the wellbeing of other children and contributes to declines in familial social support and material security.
Conclusion
Taken together, the results suggest that a sibling's criminal legal system contact can disrupt home life for siblings and families alike, highlighting yet another way that mass criminalization may imperil families and children.
Of all the relationships in which young children are involved, perhaps the least understood is that between siblings. Until recently, the mother and child were the focus of most studies of social development. Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in the role of peers (e.g., Ross & Goldman, 1976) and a growing awareness that the child’s early social development should be viewed in terms of broader social contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Although family relations in general are seen as primary in the socialization process, research has been restricted to competencies that develop in the parent-child relationship and their extension to and supplementation by peer relations; very little attention has been paid to the role played by siblings in the development of social skills.
Studying children with their siblings—with whom they share a daily life of great intimacy and emotional importance—is illuminating for those interested in development in two different ways. First, it gives us a new perspective on the development of social understanding—the understanding of others’ feelings and intentions, and of the social rules and roles of the world in which they grow up. The growth of such understanding is of central significance in human development, yet we are surprisingly ignorant of its early stages. Second, studying siblings enables us to explore the question of how far different family relationships influence a child’s development. In this chapter I will to consider both these issues, drawing on material from three longitudinal studies of siblings and their mothers that we have conducted in Cambridge, with working-class and middle-class English families. I will focus in particular on two studies, in which we followed families from a point when their second children were in their second year—a period of astonishingly rapid advance in understanding others (Dunn, 1988; Dunn & Munn, 1985, 1986a, 1986b).
The essays on siblings collected in this volume vividly show cross-cultural differences in sibling caretaking (Chapters 3, 4, and 5), in language development (Chapters 3, 4, and 5), and in play interaction (Chapters 3 and 5). The North American samples (Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9) address many of the same topics, including folk perceptions of siblings and sibling roles; caretaking patterns; and friendship and support among sibs.
34 pairs of same-sex siblings were observed for two 1-hour periods in their homes. The younger siblings averaged 20 months of age, and the age interval between siblings was either large (2.5-4 years) or small (1-2 years). The sex of the dyad affected agonistic and prosocial behavior but not imitation. Males were more physically aggressive. Older females were more prosocial in their behavior than any of the other groups. Age of the children within the dyad affected agonistic, prosocial, and imitative behavior. Older children initiated agonistic and prosocial acts more often than their younger siblings. Younger siblings imitated their older siblings more often. The interval between siblings had little effect on the patterning of interaction. The findings of sex and age patterns and the high levels of interaction in all groups are discussed in terms of the potential importance of sibling interaction for social development.
The Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (1969) included in its 1,182 pages virtually no reference to caretaking of children by anyone other than parents. Yet cross-cultural evidence indicates nonparental caretaking is either the norm or a significant form of caretaking in many societies. It is likely socialization research rarely takes sibling caretaking into account for social and historical reasons — mother-child dyadic analyses flourish in Western, industrialized nations, where mothers are primary caretakers. The first portion of this paper explores cross-cultural variations in child caretaking. The next section examines some of its antecedents. The final section reviews eight possible correlates and/or consequences of child caretaking for caretaker and/or charge. Though child caretaking is widespread cross-culturally, little is known of its ethnographic incidence. Relevant material is scattered through many ethnographic studies and is generally reported in a manner that makes comparative analysis difficult.
This review considers (1) recent evidence on the nature of sibling interaction from observational studies of preschool children and (2) the developmental implications of this evidence. Sibling interaction is discussed in terms of "reciprocal" and "complementary" interaction. Sibling influence is most plausibly associated with the reciprocal features of the relationship and with sociocognitive development. "Sibling status" variables, the focus of previous research, are not consistently related to the reciprocal but to the complementary features, which are probably of less developmental significance. Research into the origins of the marked individual differences between siblings must take account of the mutual influence of parental and sibling relationships, not solely sibling status variables.