Beyond Warmth and Conflict: The Developmental Utility of a Boundary Conceptualization of Sibling Relationship Processes

Abstract

Translating relationship boundaries conceptualizations to the study of sibling relationships, this study examined the utility of sibling enmeshment and disengagement in predicting child adjustment difficulties in a sample of 282 mothers and adolescents (Mean age = 12.7 years). Mothers completed a semi-structured interview at the first measurement occasion to assess sibling interaction patterns. Adolescents, mothers, and teachers reported on children’s adjustment problems across two annual waves of assessment. Supporting the incremental utility of a boundary conceptualization of sibling relationships, results of latent difference score analyses indicated that coder ratings of sibling enmeshment and disengagement uniquely predicted greater adolescent adjustment difficulties even after taking into account standard indices of sibling relationship quality (i.e., warmth, conflict) and sibling structural characteristics (e.g., sex).

Parent Psychopathology and Children’s Psychological Health: Moderation by Sibling Relationship Dimensions

“…While the questionnaire methodology employed in this study for measuring sibling relationship indices (e.g., warmth, conflict) corresponds to standards set by the field, it may oversimplify the complex and evolving nature of sibling relationships. Future research should extend the methodologies and conceptualizations of the sibling relationship quality dimensions (Bascoe et al 2012; Buist et al 2013), including measurement of the relationship at multiple time points, use of multi-method assessment, and assessment of additional relationship indices (e.g., rivalry, empathy, teaching). The age range of siblings in the current study was broad (ages 1 to 21 years) and, although the majority of siblings were between age 5 and 15 years and two-thirds were spaced no more than 3 years apart from the target child, it is possible that results would change with a more restricted age range.…”

A life history approach to delineating how harsh environments and hawk temperament traits differentially shape children's problem‐solving skills

“…The tasks included a puzzle, a shape sorter task in which the child places plastic forms into holes matching their shapes, a reward‐oriented seesaw problem that requires the child to gain access to an attractive toy on a lever encased in a transparent box by placing a wooden block on the other end of the lever, and a task where the child must use a piece of balsa wood to retrieve a ball stuck in a plastic tube. Coders rated the interactions using the Disengagement scale (Manning & Davies, ) adapted from prior coding schemes of relationship disengagement (e.g., Bascoe, Davies, & Cummings, ; Jacobvitz, Hazen, Curran, & Hitchens, ). The Disengagement scale assessed the extent to which the mother appeared uninterested and uninvolved with the child during the task.…”

Children's Vulnerability to Interparental Conflict: The Protective Role of Sibling Relationship Quality

“…At Wave 1, a trained experimenter administered the Sibling Interview for Mothers, a semistructured interview with the mother, designed to assess the quality of sibling relationships in childhood (Bascoe, Davies, & Cummings, 2012). The timing of our Wave 1 sibling measure was guided by quantitative calls in the literature to obtain moderator assessments that temporally correspond with or precede the proposed predictors (i.e., Wave 1 interparental conflict and Wave 2 adolescent emotional insecurity; Goodnight, Bates, Newman, Dodge, & Pettit, 2006).…”