Sibling Relationships and Social Emotional Skills in High School Students

Abstract

Research has established that family relationships influence multiple domains of adolescent development, including the social-emotional domain. However, sibling relationships have been relatively understudied, despite their potential significance. This study examined the role that sibling relationships play in all areas of adolescent social-emotional competence as defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), including self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Research questions explored specific variables that contribute to sibling relationship quality, mechanisms of the sibling relationship that may be related to social-emotional skills development, and the ways in which the sibling and parent-child relationships fit together to contribute to these outcomes.Participants (n=143) were parents of at least one adolescent in high school (e.g., 9th through 12th grade) and another child who was considered as a sibling to the adolescent. Results showed that specific sibling relationship characteristics (i.e., sibling age difference and birth order) and adolescent social-emotional skills (i.e., social awareness and self-management) were related to levels of sibling relationship quality, and all mechanisms of the sibling relationship (i.e., companionship, empathy, teaching, rivalry, aggression, and avoidance) were correlated with social-emotional outcomes. Additionally, sibling relationships were related to adolescent social-emotional development beyond the parent-child relationship, but could not compensate for poor parent-child relationship quality. These findings have implications for interventions aimed at promoting healthy social-emotional development and sibling relationships.