Sibling jealousy in early childhood: longitudinal links to sibling relationship quality

The current investigation examined the long-term prediction of sibling jealousy assessed in a laboratory-based paradigm on sibling relationship quality 2 1/2 years later. This multi-method longitudinal study included mothers, fathers, and two children from 35 families. Younger siblings were 16 months and older siblings were, on average, 4 years at Time 1. Positive longitudinal associations were found between older siblings' jealousy reactions when interacting with the father at Time 1 and sibling conflict at Time 2. These associations continued to exist even when older siblings' behaviour during the mother sessions was considered. Children's inability to regulate their jealous reactions may be indicative of lower levels of emotion regulation skills, which may, in turn, translate to poorer sibling interactions years later. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/83736/1/690_ftp.pd

His, Hers, or Theirs? Coparenting After the Birth of a Second Child

This study examined changes in coparenting after the birth of a second child. Mothers and fathers from 241 two-parent families reported on their spouse’s coparenting cooperation and conflict with their firstborn child before (prenatal) and four months after the birth of a second child. Parents completed questionnaires (prenatal) on gender role attitudes, marital satisfaction, and firstborn children’s temperamental characteristics. Parents also reported on the secondborn infant’s temperament at 1 month following the birth of the second child. Coparenting conflict increased across the transition, whereas cooperation decreased. Couples in which fathers reported greater marital satisfaction were more cooperative 4 months after the birth. Firstborns’ difficult temperament contributed to less cooperative coparenting by both parents. When mothers had more traditional gender role beliefs, fathers engaged in more conflictual coparenting behavior, and when fathers had more traditional gender role beliefs, mothers engaged in more conflictual coparenting behavior. Mothers, but not fathers, engaged in more coparenting conflict regarding the firstborn when both the firstborn and infant sibling had difficult temperaments

Fathers Are Parents, Too! Widening the Lens on Parenting for Children’s Development

Why do fathers matter? Recent conceptual and theoretical advances regarding father–child relationships have demonstrated that fathers affect children’s outcomes both directly and indirectly. To attain a complete developmental account of the ecologically rich contexts of child development, in this article, we recommend best practices regarding the conceptualization and assessment of father–child relationships that reflect contemporary family life. We also discuss conceptual and measurement issues pertaining to father–child relationships in different family configurations, including those with resident and nonresident fathers. We conclude with recommendations that can help developmental researchers advance our understanding of fathering, parenting, and children’s development.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145283/1/cdep12275.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145283/2/cdep12275_am.pd

Gender role beliefs, work-family conflict, and father involvement after the birth of a second child

A major task for parents during the transition to second-time parenthood is to help their firstborn adjust to their new roles as siblings. Increased father involvement has been theorized to be protective for firstborn adjustment. Fathers, however, are under increasing pressure to balance both work and family responsibilities. Here we evaluate fathers’ relative involvement in two-child families as a function of family structure, gender role beliefs, and work-family conflict in 222 dual- and single-earner families from the Midwestern region of the United States after the birth of a second child. Couples reported on father involvement with firstborns and infants when the infants were 1, 4, 8, and 12 months old. On average, fathers increased their involvement with infants but decreased their involvement with firstborns. Dual-earner fathers were more involved with their children than single-earner fathers. Although mean levels of father involvement were different between dual- and single-earners, multi-group parallel process trajectory latent growth curve models revealed more similarities than differences between dual- and single-earners in processes guiding father involvement. Both dual- and single-earner fathers engaged in juggling childcare between children and both dual- and single-earner fathers’ involvement with infants was constrained by work-family conflict. Gender role beliefs predicted child care involvement for dual-earner, but not single-earner fathers: more egalitarian gender roles predicted greater involvement with the firstborn immediately after the birth of the second child. Results underscore the need for greater workplace support for fathers’ caregiving roles after the birth of an infant

YOUNG CHILDREN'S SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS WITH SIBLINGS AND FRIENDS

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72230/1/h0080215.pd

Are Women'S Parenting‐Specific Beliefs Associated With Depressive Symptoms In The Perinatal Period? Development Of The Rigidity Of Maternal Beliefs Scale

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/110632/1/da22280.pd

What are the Marital Problems of Happy Couples? A Multimethod, Two‐Sample Investigation

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162758/2/famp12483.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162758/1/famp12483_am.pd

VII. Developmental Trajectories of Children’s Emotional Reactivity after the Birth of a Sibling

Emotional reactivity in this chapter refers to children’s moodiness, worrying, emotional instability, and their inability to emotionally cope with new situations (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000) rather than a temperamental characteristic. Emotionally reactive children often have difficulties adapting to change and are described as moody and anxious. Because the birth of a sibling is considered a significant change within the family, emotionally reactive children may become increasingly emotionally labile after the birth. During the transition to siblinghood, Stewart (1990) reported that children experienced an increase in emotional intensity, a decrease in the range of mood expressions, and an increased tendency to approach rather than withdraw from social interaction in the year following the infant’s birth. The likelihood of whether children have problems with emotional reactivity after the sibling’s birth was contingent on whether children were described by mothers as emotionally reactive prior to the birth. Dunn and Kendrick (1982) reported that emotionally reactive children prior to the birth were either emotionally reactive after the birth or actually increased in emotional reactivity in the first 8 months following the sibling’s birth. These findings provide support for the accentuation principle, where life stressors accentuate the individual’s preexisting psychological traits prior to the life event, in this case, the birth of an infant sibling (Elder & Caspi, 1988; Volling, 2012). Dunn and Kendrick (1982) argued that the change in children’s miserable moods and worrying was not simply a matter of age-related developmental change because these behaviors increased only from one month before the birth to 8 months after, and not from 8 to 14 months, when the family had already adjusted to the birth. Thus, there is some evidence to suggest that we might see an adjustment and adaptation response for children’s emotional reactivity, with an immediate increase in emotional reactivity that either declines or stabilizes shortly afterward. . . . In sum, the trajectories of children’s emotional reactivity revealed that there are relatively stable patterns of behavior over the transition and that children high on emotional reactivity prior to the birth of a sibling were also relatively high afterward. The vast majority of children fell into a low-stable class well within a normative, nonclinical range of behavior, suggesting that most children have few to no emotional reactivity difficulties in response to the impending birth of their infant sibling. Children, whose mothers were more stressed and hassled about parenting responsibilities prenatally, were more emotionally reactive and actually increased in their emotional reactivity after the birth of a sibling. These findings underscore the fact that parenting stresses (with the firstborn) experienced by mothers during the pregnancy with the second-born may set in motion a family dynamic that gives rise to increased emotional reactivity before and after the birth. It is also possible that emotionally reactive children create additional burdens and stresses for parents. No doubt the process is probably bidirectional, with emotionally reactive children creating more parenting stress, which, in turn, contributes to children’s feelings of emotional insecurity, worrying, and reactivity over time, and future work would be well advised to consider investigating these developmental processes. Children with better emotional understanding before the birth were also more likely to be emotionally reactive and increase in their emotional reactivity over time (i.e., mid-increasing) than children in the low-stable class. Because children with better emotional understanding are more prone to emotional problems through an over-internalization of others’ and one’s own distress (Keenan & Shaw, 1997), perhaps children with better emotional understanding are more attuned to the emotional climate of the family and are better able to comprehend the impending changes that accompany the birth of a sibling. Finally, children in the high-stable class of emotional reactivity were not only characterized by greater negative emotionality, but were also at-risk for developing conflictual interactions with their siblings 1 year after the birth, which is not surprising given prior research finding that children high in negative emotionality are more involved in sibling conflict and have higher internalizing and externalizing behavior problems (Dirks et al., 2015). Given the predictive utility of early sibling conflict for later sibling conflict (Dunn et al., 1994), and the links between sibling conflict and other negative developmental outcomes for children and adolescents (e.g., externalizing and internalizing problems; Buist et al., 2013), these highly emotionally reactive children, although few in number, may be potentially at-risk for later developmental difficulties

Aggression, Sibling Antagonism, and Theory of Mind During the First Year of Siblinghood: A Developmental Cascade Model

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133634/1/cdev12530_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133634/2/cdev12530.pd

Situational affect and temperament: Implications for sibling caregiving

The caregiving behaviour of 60 preschool-age children ( M=50 months) toward their 16-month-old younger siblings was observed during a brief separation from their parents. Sibling caregiving was more strongly associated with parent ratings of both the older siblings' and toddlers' temperament than with the younger siblings' distress exhibited during the separation. The older siblings' social fear was positively related to providing care, whereas their temperamental activity level was negatively related to caregiving. Younger siblings' temperamental anger and soothability were positively associated with receiving care from an older sibling. Relations with temperament were independent of both children's distress levels during the separation, and in several instances, dispositional affective measures (i.e. temperament) made stronger contributions to the prediction of sibling caregiving than did situational distress. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35261/1/360_ftp.pd