A Reciprocal and Dynamic Development Model for the Effects of Siblings on Children’s Theory of Mind

Abstract

In the field of social influences on Theory of Mind (ToM), more research has focused on the role of parents, but less research has examined the impact of siblings on children's social understanding. We review existing research related to what factors might affect sibling-ToM association and how these potential factors affect ToM. Based on the literature review, we propose an integrative model that unites three categories of factors (i.e., sibling structural variables, sibling individual variables, parental intervening variables) that might have effects on the sibling-ToM association and highlights mental-state talks during sibling interactions at the intersection of sibling-related variables and ToM. Furthermore, we propose some issues arising from this review that need to be clarified in future studies. Specifically, we hope to clarify the specific effects of older and younger siblings on children's understanding of human minds, the similarities and differences of sibling-ToM association under different cultural backgrounds, and the impact of family social disadvantage (e.g., lower SES) on the sibling-ToM association. All these works would benefit from the verification, revision, and expansion of our reciprocal influence model for the sibling-ToM association.

Siblings, shopping, and sustainability: Birth-order differences in green consumption

“…Therefore, future research may benefit from reliance on representative samples, and should preferably be conducted in other cultural contexts with different sample types to test the generalizability of our obtained results. Optimally, such future scholarly work should also measure and control for further confounding factors that may influence sibling dynamics (Keller et al, 2015;Grønhøj, 2016;Halder et al, 2020;Hou et al, 2020).…”

Biological and cognitive mechanisms and the role of culture in theory of mind development: In need of an integrative, biocultural perspective?

“…Actually, within both the family and the school setting, pretend play in the preschool period, and increased variation in conversational exposure to mental states as a function of improved language skills in middle childhood constitute important fora for reflecting on different perspectives (e.g., Foley & Hughes, 2021). As language is fundamental to ToM development (see Astington & Baird, 2005;Milligan et al, 2007), the temporal reach of linguistic interaction mechanisms of family influence on ToM development appears an important subject of future research (see De Villiers, 2007;Foley & Hughes, 2021;Hou et al, 2020). Finally, attempting to link neural and experiential underpinnings of early ToM achievements, such interaction patterns could moderate the degree of necessitated ToM revisions, in combination with genetically mediated functional changes in dopamine binding that are suggested to facilitate signaling of prediction-outcome mismatches and trigger conceptual change (see Sabbagh's, 2017 suggestions above).…”

The sibling effect on neurodevelopment of preschoolers under China’s newly relaxed child policy: A national retrospective cohort study

“…For example, Zajonc and Markus’s Confluence Model theorized that a child’s development could benefit from a child-to-child teaching environment ( Zajonc and Markus, 1975 ). More recently, an integrative model was proposed and emphasized the reciprocal and dynamic development of the sibling effect, which could be either negative or positive but constantly changing with age ( Hou et al, 2020 ). Still, other studies find no relationship between child quantity and quality ( Pennington and Harpending, 1988 ; Draper and Hames, 2000 ; Jamison et al, 2002 ; Tada et al, 2002 ; Hesketh et al, 2003 ).…”