The Relations of Age Spacing and Attitudes of Adult Sibling Relationships

Much research has been done in the area of sibling relationships and the effects of birth order, divorce, sibling conflict and rivalry, and how sibling relationships affect personality. The current study investigated the relations between siblings age, those nearest in age would be closer behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively. The Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale (LSRS), developed by Riggio (2000), was administered to 106 participants enrolled in summer classes at Fort Hays State University, members of a western Kansas service organization, and members of a western Kansas church group. Participants completed one LSRS for each living sibling in their family for a total of 264 ratings. The LSRS measures the attitudes that adults held towards siblings during childhood, as well as their current attitudes towards the same siblings. The six subscales of the LSRS are child affect, adult affect, child cognitions, adult cognitions, child behavior, and adult behavior. Descriptive statistics were calculated and data were analyzed using Pearson correlations and analysis of variance. Results supported the ideas that close-in-age siblings are significantly closer behaviorally and cognitively, but not emotionally