Body Talk: Siblings’ Use of Positive and Negative Body Self-Disclosure and Associations with Sibling Relationship Quality and Body-Esteem

Abstract

The sibling relationship has been deemed the quintessential "love-hate relationship." Sibling relationships have also been found to have both positive and negative impacts on the adjustment of youth. Unlike previous research, however, the present study examined the associations between siblings' positive and negative body-related disclosures with relationship quality and body-esteem. Additionally, ordinal position, individual sex, and sibling sex composition were tested as moderators. Participants included 101 predominantly White and middle class adolescent sibling dyads (54 % female adolescents, with relatively equal sibling gender compositions). Older siblings were, on average, 16.46 (SD = 1.35) years old with younger siblings an average of 13.67 (SD = 1.56) years. Adolescents completed questionnaires and data were analyzed using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling, which focused on disclosure to and from dyad members. In general, sibling body-related disclosure was positive for the quality of the sibling relationship, regardless of the valance of disclosure. Also, adolescents' body esteem was greater when adolescents reported disclosing (i.e., actor-effects) about positive or negative body issues to their siblings (particularly for females). Conversely, when adolescents received positive or negative body-related disclosures from their siblings (i.e., partner-effects), adolescents reported lower levels of body esteem (particularly for girls and younger siblings). Thus, the impact of body-related disclosure on adolescents' feelings of body esteem appear to be associated more with whether they are the discloser or the one being disclosed to, while the impact on the quality of the relationship has simply more to do with whether or not they are generally disclosing to one another.

Does Media Literacy Mitigate Risk for Reduced Body Satisfaction Following Exposure to Thin-Ideal Media?

“…The intended outcome of the peer norms processing instruction set was for participants to consider the ways in which their peers may use thin-ideal media to evaluate others' appearance, including the appearance of the participant. However, in line with suggestions by Hillard et al (2016), the inclusion of items to engage participants in consideration of their peers' appearance comparison behaviors or desires to look like media images, which were used to set up the premise that peers use media to compare themselves and others, could have produced a feeling of cohesion, or bonding between participants and their perceptions of their peers (Bassett Greer et al 2015;Hillard et al 2016), which reduced negative outcomes for some participants.…”

Love Them and Hate Them: The Developmental Appropriateness of Ambivalence in the Adolescent Sibling Relationship

“…For example, when adolescents disclosed information about body‐related issues—regardless of whether it was positive or negative—they had greater body esteem. Adolescents who were on the receiving end of these disclosures, especially younger sisters, had lower body esteem (Greer, Campione‐Barr, & Lindell, ). While issues related to body image are particularly salient to adolescents, so are issues surrounding dating and sexuality.…”

Do parents or siblings engage in more negative weight-based talk with children and what does it sound like? A mixed-methods study

“…Additionally, studies have shown that negative weight-based talk by family members is associated with child and adolescent body dissatisfaction, unhealthy weight control behaviors, and depression (Eisenberg, Berge, Fulkerson, & Neumark-Sztainer, 2012; Greer, Campione-Barr, & Lindell, 2015; Keery et al, 2005; MacDonald et al, 2015), regardless of whether the child is overweight or normal weight.…”

“…Most studies that have investigated negative weight-based talk focus on peer or family teasing. A few studies have included both parent and sibling variables (Greer et al, 2015; Schaefer & Salafia, 2014; Taylor et al, 2006), but to the best of our knowledge, only one study has examined family, parents, and siblings separately (Keery et al, 2005). In addition, the limited studies that have included siblings have been conducted mostly with Caucasian, mid- to higher-income participants.…”