Families and Siblings

Sibling relationships are the most neglected of nuclear family relationships by family researchers.  However, sibling relationships are frequently the longest relationships, extending over a lifetime, that most people experience.  Sibling relationships are important for many areas of development, including aggression, problem-solving capacity, and substance use.  Dr. Mark Feinberg's research on siblings has focused on how and when siblings develop similarly or differently (see Family publications).  For example, analyzing data from a study of two-child, two-parent families that Drs. Susan McHale and Dr. Nan Crouter have been conducting, we have demonstrated that sibling relationships tend to improve over adolescence when the trajectories of the siblings’ relationships with parents diverge.  Thus, sibling differentiation in parental relationships seems to be linked to increased warmth and less conflict in siblings’ own relationships.  Dr. Feinberg has pursued a number of other studies of sibling differentiation, including the use of a behavioral genetic framework to examine siblings' development in the context of other family processes.

Drs. Feinberg and McHale have developed a preventive intervention for school-aged siblings, Siblings Are Special, focusing on enhancing sibling warmth and problem solving.  This 12 session program, including 4 family nights where parents learn how to manage sibling relationships in a positive mannger, has been pilot tested.  Efforts are underway to secure funding to conduct a rigorous randomized trial of the program.