I. Introduction: Understanding the Transition to Siblinghood From a Developmental Psychopathology and Ecological Systems Perspective

Abstract

The birth of an infant sibling is a common occurrence in the lives of many toddler and preschool children. Early childhood is also a time for the emergence of disruptive behavior problems that may set the stage for later problem behaviors. The current study examined individual differences in young children’s behavioral and emotional adjustment after the birth of a sibling in an effort to uncover developmental trajectories reflecting sudden and persistent change (maladaptation), adjustment and adaptation (resilience), gradual linear increases, and no change (stability and continuity). Growth mixture modeling (GMM) was conducted with a sample of 241 families expecting their second child using a longitudinal research design across the first year after the sibling’s birth (prenatal, 1, 4 8 and 12 months) on seven syndrome scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1.5–5:(Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000): aggression, attention problems, anxiety/depression, emotional reactivity, withdrawal, somatic complaints, and sleep problems. For all scales, multiple classes describing different trajectory patterns emerged that reflected predominantly intercept differences; children high on problem behavior after the birth were those high before the birth. There was no evidence of a sudden, persistent maladaptive response indicating children underwent a developmental crisis for any of the problem behaviors examined. Most children were low on all problem behaviors examined and showed little change or actually declined in problem behaviors over time, although some children did experience more pronounced changes in the borderline clinical or clinical range. Only in the case of aggressive behavior was there evidence of an Adjustment and Adaptation Response showing a sudden change (prenatal to 1 month) that subsided by 4 months, suggesting that some young children react to stressful life events but adapt quickly to these changing circumstances. Further, children’s withdrawal revealed a curvilinear, quadratic path, suggesting children both increased and decreased in their withdrawal over time. Guided by a developmental ecological systems framework, we employed data mining procedures to uncover the child, parent, and family variables that best discriminated the different trajectory classes and found that children’s temperament, coparenting, parental self-efficacy, and parent-child attachment relationships were prominent in predicting children’s adjustment after the birth of an infant sibling. Finally, when trajectory classes were used to predict sibling relationship quality at 12 months, children high on aggression, attention problems, and emotional reactivity in the year after the birth engaged in more conflict and less positive involvement with the infant sibling at the end of the first year.

Sibling rivalry disorder: Issues of diagnosis and management- A case report

“…As the patient had problem adjusting with the arrival of her baby sister, and difficulty in adjusting with new parental roles, focus of therapy was on parent-child relations. Older child's temperament, co-parenting, parental self-efficacy, and parent-child attachment relationships were prominent in predicting the children's adjustment after the birth of a new sibling [2]. More positive parent-child relations are associated with more positive sibling relations and vice-versa [23].…”

“…Birth of a younger sibling may be considered a normative ecological transition for most children; however, this normative developmental transition can be a significant stress for parents and their young children constituting a developmental crisis for some children [1][2]. Parents' worries and anxieties about handling first born child's rivalry towards new sibling effectively, lists it as one of their biggest childrearing concerns [3].…”

Adrenocortical interdependence in father‐infant and mother‐infant dyads: Attunement or something more?

“…Mothers and fathers were also required to be cohabiting (99% were married). The larger investigation recruited 241 two-parent families in which mothers were expecting their second child (see Volling et al, 2017 for full details of the recruitment, procedures, and measurement design). The current report, however, focuses on the Hormones, Behavior and Parent-Infant Relationships Sub-study (HBPIRS) conducted with mothers, fathers, and infants at 12 months, during counterbalanced laboratory visits in which the SSP was conducted.…”

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“…The fact that stunting prevalence is higher in older children may be linked to the self-feeding tendencies and food preferences of children aged 36 months and older [66][67][68]. Additionally, at 36 months, most children have younger siblings [69] and start school [70,71], which may reduce the attention they get from parents [72,73] and the number of healthy meals eaten at home [74][75][76]. A study in Taiwan confirmed that children who were picky eaters were more likely to be stunted than those who were not picky eaters [77].…”