Firstborn Children's Jealousy And Capability Of Emotion Regulation In Sibling Relationships

With the widespread implementation of the two-child policy,the transition from the only child in the family to the sibling relationship will have a great impact on the psychology and behavior of the first-born children.Sibling relationships is a kind of interpersonal relationship that the individual has lasted for the longest time along with the development of his life.Sibling competition is an important factor affecting children's psychological development.ICD-10 defines sibling competition disorder,also known as sibling jealousy,which refers to the emotional disorder that occurs in most of the first-born babies with the birth of their younger brothers and sisters.Despite the mild degree of emotional disorder,competition or jealousy with emotional disorder will last for a long time,which will affect the psychological and behavioral problems of the first child.In the second-child family,the importance of mother is self-evident,but the father's intervention and support is also an important factor to promote and protect the physical and mental health of the first child.Father's care can provide protection for the first-born child,reduce the negative emotions(such as jealousy)caused by mother's neglect,and further promote the development of the emotional regulation ability of the first-born child.A questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between jealousy,capability of emotion regulation and fathering pattern of 120 firstborn primary school children,and whether the relationship between jealousy and capability of emotion regulationwas influenced by the fathering pattern.In experiment 1,120 children were tested with self-made jealous material stories.The results showed that:(1)The jealousy of first-born children decreased significantly with the increase of grade,and was higher when they were of the same sex,and the age difference between first-born children and their siblings was extremely significant.(2)There was a significant interaction between the sex of the first fetus and the age gap between the peers).Further simple effect test showed that the self-esteem threat score between the female first-born children aged 3-6 years was significantly higher than that between siblings aged 0-3 years and 6-9 years,and the age gap between siblings was 3-6 years old.There was a significant difference in the results on the hypothalamus,but there was no significant difference in the results of self-esteem threat between male head fetuses and their siblings;In experiment 2,120 first-born childrens were tested by the Children and Adolescents Emotional Regulation Questionnaire.The experimentalresults showed that: There was a significant difference in emotional regulation ability between first-born children and their siblings in grade,and there was a significant difference in emotional regulation ability between first-born children and their siblings in age difference.There was no significant interaction between the first child's gender,grade,sibling gender and age gap in emotional regulation ability and its dimensions;In experiment 3,the results showed that:(1)The grade of the first-born children had extremely significant differences in their father's parenting style and control factors,and significant differences in encouraging independent factors).The results showed that there were significant differences in the care factors between the sexes of the first-born children.There was no significant interaction between the gender,grade,sibling gender and age gap of first-born children in the parenting style of fathers and its dimensions.(2)There was a significant negative correlation between the emotional regulation ability of first-born children and the parenting style of fathers and jealousy,while there was no correlation between the emotional regulation ability and the parenting style of fathers.The emotional regulation ability of the first child and the parenting style of the father had a significant negative predictive effect on the jealousy of the first child.(3)The jealousy of the firstborn children in the fathers' high-caring group decreased significantly with the increase of the level of capability of emotional regulation.The jealousy of the firstborn children in the fathers' low-caring group decreased slowly with the increase of the level of capability of emotional regulation.Compared with the fathers' low-caring group,the capability of emotion regulation of the firstborn children in the high-caring group was more predictive of jealousy.Compared with the high-caring group,firstborn children in the low-care group had relatively low levels of jealousy.In conclusions,fathering pattern has a regulating effect on the relationship between jealousy and capability of emotional regulation in the firstborn children.