Children's Perceptions of “Goodness” and “Badness” in Sibling Roles

Abstract

Perceptions of “goodness” and “badness” in sibling roles were investigated in a cross‐ sectional study of second‐born children aged 5–13 years. The study focused on changes in descriptions of these sibling role concepts as a function of age of child, sex of child, sibling status of child, and age‐spacing between siblings. Results indicated that a “good” sibling was perceived in different terms than a “bad” sibling, and these descriptions varied with increasing age. Sex of sibling and degree of age‐spacing between siblings produced markedly different perceptions of the role concepts. Results are discussed in relation to the degree of a child's ex perience with an older sibling.

Sibling relationships: Perceptions of four- and five-year-old children and their mothers

“…Both positive and negative perceptions on the part of the child have been reported regarding the sibling relationship. These perceptions are Influenced by the sex and age of the siblings (Signer & Jacobsen, 1980;Furman & Burhmester, 1985b). Most of these studies have been conducted with school-age subjects.…”

“…Children In closely spaced dyads used more detail In their descriptions of the older sibling than did the children In widely spaced dyads. In an investigation of 5-to 13-year-old children's per ceptions of a "good" or "bad" sibling, Signer and Jacobsen (1980) asked children to describe their siblings. Children tended to describe sib lings in terms of social behavior (e.g., not doing things that were wrong), caregiving behavior (e.g., sharing), recreational activities (e.g., playing with sibling), and abstract behavior (e.g., a pest).…”

“…Although little attention has been directed toward preschool chil dren's perceptions of the quality of the sibling relationship, several descriptors have been identified as characteristics of the sibling relationship. For example, older children used social and caregiving terms in describing good siblings and recreational and abstract terms in describing bad siblings (Signer & Jacobsen, 1980). In another study, interviews of school-aged children revealed that perceptions of the sib ling relationship included the following qualities: intimacy, prosocial, companionship, similarity, nurturance of and by sibling, admiration of and by sibling, affection, dominance of and over sibling, quarreling.…”

“…Perceptions of the quality of sibling relationships have been docu mented for older children in studies by and Signer and Jacobsen (1980). Older children used a variety of descriptors in discussing their sibling relationships.…”

“…In another study, Signer and Jacobsen (1980) Investigated second-born 5-to 13-year-old children's perceptions of the "goodness" and "badness" in sibling roles. In describing their siblings, older children used so cial, recreational, caregiving and abstract behavior as descriptors for defining qualities that made a "good" or "bad" sibling.…”