Clare M. Stocker

Longitudinal associations between sibling relationship quality, parental differential treatment, and children's adjustment.

This study examined associations between changes in sibling relationships and changes in parental differential treatment and corresponding changes in childrens adjustment. One hundred thirty-three families were assessed at 3 time points. Parents rated childrens externalizing problems, and children reported on sibling relationship quality, parental differential treatment, and depressive symptoms. On average, older siblings were 10, 12, and 16 years old, and younger siblings were 8, 10, and 14 years old at Waves 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Results from hierarchical linear modeling indicated that as sibling relationships improved over time, childrens depressive symptoms decreased over time. In addition, as children were less favored over their siblings over time, childrens externalizing problems increased over time. Findings highlight the developmental interplay between the sibling context and childrens adjustment.

Marital Conflict and Children's Adjustment: Parental Hostility and Children's Interpretations as Mediators

The associations between marital conflict, maternal and paternal hostility, childrens interpretations of marital conflict, and childrens adjustment were examined in a sample of 136 school-aged children and their parents. Observational measures were collected from videotapes of marital interaction and family interaction. Self-report data were collected from parents and children. Results showed that mothers’ and fathers’ hostility mediated the association between martial conflict and childrens internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Childrens feelings of being to blame for marital conflict and being threatened by it mediated between marital conflict and childrens internalizing problems but not their externalizing problems.

Sibling socialization: The effects of stressful life events and experiences

Stressful life events and experiences may disrupt the typical day-to-day interactions between sisters and brothers that provide the foundation of sibling socialization. This chapter examines four experiences that may affect patterns of sibling interaction: parental marital conflict, parental divorce and remarriage, foster care placement, and a siblings developmental disability. We propose a model to guide future research on sibling socialization in distressed families and special populations in which qualities of the sibling relationship moderate the effects of stressful life experiences on child and family adjustment.

Associations between Siblings' Differential Family Experiences and Differences in Psychological Adjustment

The goal of this paper was to further our understanding of adolescents’ adjustment by studying multiple components of siblings’ unique family environments using the difference score methodology. Self-report data about marital conflict, parent-child hostility and adolescents’ adjustment were obtained from 114 sibling pairs (mean ages = 14 and 16 years) and their parents. Results indicated that adolescents who had higher appraisals of self-blame for marital conflict than their siblings also had more hostile parent-child relationships than their siblings. In addition, siblings’ differential experiences of their family environments were associated with differences in siblings’ externalizing, but not internalizing, problems. When considered together, differences in parent-child hostility, appraisals of self-blame and exposure to marital conflict predicted independent variance in differences in siblings’ externalizing problems. Results are discussed in the context of using difference scores as a method to study siblings’ unique experiences.