The Association between Sibling Relationship Dynamics and Empathic Abilities in Young Adulthood

Existing research concerning the effects of empathy development has primarily focused on the role of parents, culture, and education but has overlooked the role of siblings. This current retrospective study investigates sibling relationship quality and cognitive and affective empathy in young adults to address the question of whether siblings influence young adults’ empathy processes. A total of 205 young adults participated in the study and completed questionnaires examining their sibling relationship quality and empathy. Strong positive relationships were observed between affective empathy and sibling relationship quality, which suggests that siblings may play a unique role in shaping each other’s affective empathy development. Young adults with a sibling who made a positive impact on them had higher sibling relationship quality and affective empathy scores. Additionally, female participants showed higher affective empathy and quality relationship with their siblings than male participants