The Role of Sibling Authority in the Occurrence of Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior in Handicapped and Nonhandicapped Sibling Dyads

The effects that each sibling\u27s relative cognitive and physical abilities may have on the quality of sibling interaction are not clearly understood in either nonhandicapped or handicapped sibling dyads. A measure of sibling authority based on behavioral observations of sibling interaction was developed that represents how sibling abilities are translated into sibling power within handicapped and nonhandicapped sibling dyads. This measure of sibling authority was related to the occurrence of prosocial and aggressive behaviors in sibling dyads with and without a child with handicaps. Ninety-three sibling dyads participated. Included were 34 nonhandicapped sibling dyads, 12 sibling dyads in which the older sibling had a handicapping condition, and 47 sibling dyads in which the younger sibling had a handicapping condition. The handicapping conditions were Down Syndrome, mental retardation, or severe hearing impairment. Results indicate that although the older sibling had greater authority overall, younger siblings had greater authority in over half of all sibling dyads. Sibling authority was not found to be dependent specifically on the presence of the handicapping conditions represented in this study nor upon the gender composition of the sibling dyads. Small differences in authority scores between siblings were associated with a greater frequency of prosocial behavior in both siblings. However, there were no significant differences between groups or siblings on the occurrence of either prosocial or aggressive behaviors. Both siblings contributed equally to the positive or negative nature of their interaction regardless of handicapping condition

Gendered Differences in Parents\u27 Encouragement of Sibling Interaction: Implications for the Construction of a Personal Premise System

Fathers\u27 and mothers\u27 encouragement of sibling interaction was examined in two-child families when the younger sibling was 5 weeks old and the older sibling about 22 months old and then approximately 3 months later. Concordant with the theories of J. Block (1982) and J. H. Block (1983,1984), fathers\u27 and mothers\u27 own linguistic behaviour as well as their encouragement of their children\u27s behaviour reflected gender-specific patterns with fathers demonstrating as well as encouraging more accommodative or agentic patterns and mothers demonstrating as well as encouraging more assimilative or communion- enhancing patterns. Among other things, fathers more actively directed the older sibling\u27s attention to the younger sibling, particularly when both children were female. Likewise, fathers more than mothers more often responded to male infants\u27 rather than female infants\u27 movements and sounds, thus giving young boys more contingent responsiveness which is thought to promote mastery and independence. On the other hand, mothers more often vocalized to, and tried to establish contact with, the infant, especially when the older sibling present was female. Parents vocalized more often to children when mothers were paired alone with the children and fathers were paired alone with them, suggesting the importance of participation in smaller, rather than larger, family groups for the development of productive language skills. Finally, parental vocalizations, particularly those directed to the older sibling, decreased substantially over time, while parental vocalization to the infant increased over time, suggesting concerns for the quality of home linguistic environment when more children are added to the family