Research On The Relationship Between The Quality Of Preschooler’s Sibling Relationships And Peer Relationship Networks And Its Educational Suggestions

For the social development of the individual,the family is the primary site of development and activity for young children,and the primary site of social development for children,and the interaction between family members is the universal and initial source of social development for the individual.Parent-child and sibling relationships co-exist in the family domain,and unlike other relationships,sibling relationships are the ’compulsory’ relationships that exist for the longest time in a person’s life and have the longest impact on the individual.In playing,arguing and learning with their siblings,young children are simultaneously learning the basic skills needed for social interaction,such as cooperation and emotional understanding.Outside of the home,kindergartens are one of the most important sites of socialisation for young children,and their peers in the classroom are partners and peers in their growth and development,and have a significant impact on the development of their social skills and social adjustment.This study understands the quality of sibling relationships and the current status of peer networks in the classroom and explores the relationship between the two,with a view to informing educators’ efforts to promote sibling closeness and improve peer interactions.In this study,we used the peer nomination method as a tool to measure peer acceptance and rejection in the classroom,and examined the characteristics of the peer acceptance network and rejection network in the classroom of children in the middle and older classes.A correlation and regression analysis was conducted on the relationship between sibling relationship quality and peer relationship networks.The main findings of this study are as follows:In terms of peer social network analysis.The overall size of the peer acceptance network was higher than the peer rejection network in the middle and older classes.There were gender differences in peer acceptance and rejection networks,with girls having larger peer acceptance networks than boys,and boys having higher indicators in the class rejection network than girls;there were significant differences in the number of siblings in the peer relationship network,with non-solitary children having higher indicators in both the peer acceptance and rejection networks than solitary children;there were grade and age differences in the peer relationship network,with older classes having more developed acceptance and rejection networks than middle classes The peer acceptance and rejection networks of 4-year-olds were smaller than those of 6-year-olds.2.Quality of sibling relationships.Overall,sibling warmth scores were highest and sibling envy scores were lowest.Gender-wise,girls were more likely to exhibit sibling warmth and sibling envy behaviours,and there was also more sibling envy between gender combinations of sisters than between gender combinations of brothers;ranking-wise,firstborns reported more sibling conflict and sibling envy than secondborns;age gap-wise,sibling relationships were characterised by high warmth,conflict and envy at an age difference of less than or equal to 3 years,and as the age gap increased,sibling warmth,conflict and jealousy decreased as the age gap increased.The study did not find any age or grade differences in the quality of sibling relationships.3.Aspects of sibling relationship quality related to peer relationship networks.Sibling warmth was positively correlated with point-out and middle-centeredness in the peer rejection network,and sibling conflict was positively correlated with point-in edge in the peer rejection network.After controlling for demographic-related variables such as gender,age,age difference,and ranking,sibling warmth was found to positively predict intermediate centrality in peer rejection networks.Based on these findings,this study proposes the following educational recommendations: pay attention to the status of young children’s peer groups to improve the level of peer interaction;pay attention to the impact of sibling relationships on young children,with joint efforts from home to guard growth;and pay attention to the after-effects of the impact of sibling relationships to build good peer relationships.