The Relationship Between Sibling Acceptance And Anxiety In School-Age Firstborns: The Moderating Role Of Collaborative Parenting And Home Chaos

With the promotion of the two-child policy,many of the original only child has been transformed into firstborns.The demographic changes have made a series of changes in the role of family members and the physical and mental health of children.Anxiety is an unpleasant emotional experience when an individual feels threatened.Sibling acceptance mainly refers to the acceptance and recognition of the second child’s heart and behavior.The complexity of family environment mainly refers to the disorder,instability and high decibel of family environment.Collaborative parenting is a state of cooperation between parents in raising children.To study the relationship between sibling acceptance,family environment complexity,collaborative education and anxiety of school-age firstborns,and to clarify the influencing factors and mechanism of anxiety of firstborns,which will play a positive role in ensuring the physical and mental health of firstborns.This study mainly investigated the influence of sibling acceptance on anxiety of school-age firstborns,and explored the moderating effects of complexity of family environment and collaborative parenting on sibling acceptance and anxiety of school-age firstborns.Combining psychosocial factors with family physical environment factors,investigating the interaction of different factors on firstborns’ emotional adaptation in family system,and exploring the practical methods of mental health of firstborns from multiple perspectives will contribute to the promotion of "comprehensive two child" policy.In this study,464 primary school firstborns from grade 4 to grade 6 in Bincheng District of Binzhou City were selected,and acceptance scale,Spence Children’s anxiety scale,family environment complexity scale and collaborative parenting scale were used to measure the acceptance,anxiety,family environment complexity and collaborative parenting of the firstborns.The results are as follows:(1)Compared with boys,girls are more likely to have anxiety;boys’ family environment is more disordered and unstable than girls;senior students’ family environment is more quiet and orderly than junior students;parents’ cooperation degree is higher when raising boys than girls.(2)Anxiety was positively correlated with the complexity of family environment and unsupported collaborative parenting;anxiety was negatively correlated with the total score of sibling acceptance and supported collaborative parenting;supported collaborative parenting was positively correlated with sibling acceptance;supported collaborative parenting was negatively correlated with the complexity of family environment;sibling acceptance was negatively correlated with unsupported collaborative parenting and family environment;There is a significant positive correlation between the complexity of family environment and unsupported collaborative parenting.(3)After controlling for gender and grade,sibling acceptance negatively predicted the anxiety level of firstborns.(4)After controlling for gender and grade,the complexity of family environment played a moderating role between sibling acceptance and anxiety of firstborns.When the complexity of family environment is low,sibling acceptance can significantly negatively predict the anxiety of firstborns.When the complexity of family environment is high,sibling acceptance has no significant predictive effect on the anxiety of the firstborns.(5)After controlling for gender and grade,parents’ unsupportive cooperative parenting moderates the relationship between sibling acceptance and anxiety of firstborns.Whether the degree of collaborative parenting that parents don’t support is high or low,sibling acceptance can significantly negatively predict the anxiety of firstborns.At the same time,sibling acceptance has a higher negative predictive effect on the anxiety of the firstborns in the environment of low degree of collaborative parenting that parents do not support.