Siblings in Dyads: Cooperation, Conflict and Self-Concept.

Forty pairs of siblings from two parent, two child, middle class families were studied for their cooperation and conflict behavior in this multimethod, multimeasure study. The younger siblings were aged nine to eleven years and the older siblings were aged twelve to fourteen years. The cooperation and conflict variables, derived from the researcher's developmental framework of sibling relationships, were measured in three ways. The projective measure is a newly created sibling apperception test which elicits the subjects' perceptions of the behavior of siblings in six pictures. An objective assessment of the siblings' actual behavior was measured by their performance on three behavioral tasks. A subjective or self report measure of the sibling experience was obtained with rating scales and interview. Results of the cooperation and conflict measures were analyzed by gender, birth order and by the composition of the sibling dyad. The siblings in this sample were more cooperative than conflictual on the behavioral tasks and showed more cooperation than conflict in response to the Sibling Pictures Test, as was predicted. Yet the subjects themselves rated their relationships as higher in conflict than in cooperation. There were few birth order and gender effects found in cooperation and conflict across all measures. Analysis of results for the four sibling dyad constellations indicate that male-male dyads experienced the highest levels of conflict and female-female dyads, the highest levels of cooperation. These outcomes were compared to the subjects' satisfaction with themselves and their sibling and to scores from the Harter Self Competence Scales for Children. When the self perception and satisfaction data were analyzed by the four dyad groups, it was the male-male dyads which had the highest self competence levels and were most satisfied with themselves. They were, however, least satisfied with their siblings. Conversely, siblings in female-female dyads had low self competence levels but were more satisfied with their siblings. These results were related to the tasks and issues relevant to the stages of sibling development described in this study.PhDClinical psychologyDevelopmental psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161631/1/8801281.pd