Youth’s Sibling Relationships Across the Course of a Parent’s Military Deployment: Trajectories and Implications

Abstract

The present exploratory study explored the trajectories and implications of at-home (military unaffiliated) parents' perceptions of youth's sibling relationships across the course of a parent's military deployment. Participants included 109 families with at least two siblings (older sibling and younger siblings age: M = 10.85, SD = 3.92 and M = 7.89, SD = 3.58, respectively) and one parent serving in the National Guard. Data were collected via in-home interviews, at six time points across the deployment cycle. A series of multilevel models revealed increases in sibling disharmony during the months a deployed parent was away, but showed signs of recovery in the year after they returned. Increases in sibling disharmony were positively associated with increases in youth's externalizing behaviors above and beyond the effects of parenting.

Conceptualizing Emotion Regulation and Coregulation as Family-Level Phenomena

“…For example, one study showed that the association between fathers’ perceived threat during a previous deployment and their preschool-aged children’s social–emotional adjustment was mediated not only by father-reported parent child interaction, but also by maternal reports of family-level emotional responsiveness (Hajal et al, 2020 ). A longitudinal study showed that school-aged children’s social–emotional adjustment over the course of a parents’ deployment was associated with sibling relationship quality, even beyond the impact of the non-deployed caregiver’s parenting practices (Whiteman et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Sibling relationships have the potential to provide young children with some of their earliest experiences of intense positive (e.g., joy, excitement) and negative (e.g., frustration, anger, jealousy) emotions (Kramer, 2014 ; Lindsey, 2020 ). Furthermore, there is evidence that the quality of sibling relationships is a unique predictor of children’s psychosocial outcomes, beyond the contributions of caregiver–child relationships (McHale, Updegraff, et al, 2012 ; McHale, Waller, et al, 2012 ; Modry-Mandell et al, 2007 ; Stormshak et al, 2009 ; Whiteman et al, 2020 ). Sibling interactions may provide opportunities for children to observe their siblings model adaptive emotion regulation skills or to benefit from siblings who provide them with coregulation during moments of distress (Kramer, 2014 ).…”

“…Perhaps even more than the coparent subsystem, the sibling relationship has been relatively neglected in terms of emotion-focused prevention and intervention. Given the impact that siblings have on one another’s emotion socialization (Kramer, 2014 ) and development of psychopathology (Buist et al, 2013 ; Feinberg et al, 2012 ; Kramer & Conger, 2009 ; Whiteman et al, 2020 ), this is a significant gap. Furthermore, the quality of the sibling relationship has an impact on the larger family system; for example, one study showed that sibling agonism had an impact on parent emotional reactivity and regulation (Ravindran et al, 2015 ).…”

“…Furthermore, the quality of the sibling relationship has an impact on the larger family system; for example, one study showed that sibling agonism had an impact on parent emotional reactivity and regulation (Ravindran et al, 2015 ). In some family constellations, such as when children are in foster care (Kothari et al, 2017 ), or experience another type of caregiver separation (e.g., military deployment; Whiteman et al, 2020 ), the sibling relationship might be the most consistent close family relationship, at least for a period of time. Thus, it may be particularly important to address enhancement of sibling relationships for children who face adversity.…”