Preschool Children's Characteristics Of Sibling Relationship Quality,its Influencing Factors,and Relations With Social Adjustment

The implementation of the two-child policy has changed the pattern of Chinese families from one-child to two-child families.Sibling relationship as a new family relationship joins original family systems.Although empirical research on sibling relationship has a relatively long history in western countries,these findings can not be directly applied to Chinese two-child families because Chinese culture is distinctly different from western culture.Due to the fact that the one-child policy has been implemented for more than 30 years,there was a lack of social and family context for researchers to study sibling relationships in the early years.Now,a large number of two-child families have emerged,which provides an opportunity for researchers to investigate sibling relationships.This article includes four studies investigating the characteristics of sibling relationships,their influence factors(i.e.,marital satisfaction,parent-child relationship,and parental differential treatment),and its effects on preschool children's social adjustment in China.The purpose of study 1 was to develop a questionnaire for measuring Chinese children's sibling relationship quality in early childhood.Firstly,based on the structure of foreign pertinent scales and the interview with 40 mothers,the initial questionnaire composed of three dimensions and 22 items was developed.Secondly,324 parents with two children were given the initial questionnaire,and the data was analyzed by item analysis and exploratory factor analysis to form a formal questionnaire.Finally,540 parents with two children were tested,and the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested.There are 18 items in this questionnaire,including three dimensions: warmth,conflict and jealousy.It has good reliability and validity,and can be used to assess sibling relationship quality in China.In order to explore the potential predictors of sibling relationship quality,a total of237 preschool children from four kindergartens in Shanghai and their parents were followed up for 7 months.On the basis of family system theory,study 2 was conducted to examine the relationship between marital satisfaction,parent-child relationship,and preschool children's sibling relationship quality using Olson Marriage Quality Questionnaire,Child-Parent Relationship Scale,and PPCSRQ.The results of crosssectional data showed that marital satisfaction can indirectly affect sibling warmth through parent-child intimacy and conflict;marital satisfaction can indirectly affect sibling conflict through parent-child conflict.The results of longitudinal data showed that mother-child conflict mediated the relationship between maternal marital satisfaction and sibling warmth/conflict,and this mediation effect only existed in the maternal,but not paternal data.In Study 3,we used the nine items tapping differential parental treatment from the Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience and PPCSRQ to test the single and joint effect of parental differential treatment on sibling relationships and the moderating role of sibling similarity in that single effect.The results showed that there is a “U” shape of a curvilinear relationship between parental differential discipline and sibling conflict and a reversed “U” shape of a curvilinear relationship between maternal differential discipline and sibling warmth.Sibling gender constellation moderated the “U” shape of a curvilinear relationship between maternal differential affection and sibling conflict.In other words,such a curvilinear relationship was stronger in the same gender siblings than in the different gender ones.In addition,when mother and father both showed more discipline to a child than their siblings,sibling conflict increased.In Study 4,we used PPCSRQ and Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale to test the effects of sibling relationship quality on preschool children's social adaptation with the longitudinal data.The results showed that sibling warmth at T1 positively predicted social competence at T2;sibling conflict at T1 negatively predicted social competence at T2 and positively predicted externalizing problems at T2;sibling warmth at T1 and conflict did not predict internalizing problems at T2.It is not hard to find that other family subsystems and parental differential treatment both influence sibling relationships,which,in turn,affects preschool children's social adjustment.Sibling relationships build a bridge between inside and outside the family.On the one hand,this article enriches the localization of sibling relationship research and provides important references for future research.On the other hand,the findings of this article provide some suggestions for parents and researchers to prevent and intervene the conflicts and contradictions in sibling interaction.