Exploring the Structure of Sibling Relationships Among Preschool Children in China and Developing a Questionnaire

Abstract

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine the structure of sibling relationships among preschool children in China and develop a questionnaire.MethodsThe concept of sibling relationships among preschool children in China was established through literature review, open interviews, and expert review, and the initial project was designed. Using the questionnaire survey method, with 651 mothers of preschool children as the research objects, we performed item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability and validity tests on the initial questionnaire.ResultsThe questionnaire for the sibling relationships among preschool children in China had 18 questions covering dimensions of sibling interaction, sibling acceptance, sibling warmth, and sibling rivalry. The questionnaire fitting indexes were better (χ2/df = 1.829, CFI = 0.930, TLI = 0.917, RMSEA = 0.055, SRMR = 0.053). The internal consistency coefficient between the total questionnaire and each dimension was 0.759–0.8548, and the total questionnaire significantly correlated with each dimension (r = 0.229–0.792) and the total score of parental self-efficacy (r = –0.106 to 0.338).ConclusionThe Sibling Relationship Questionnaire for Chinese Preschool Children (Parental Version) exhibited good reliability and validity, making it an effective tool for the evaluation of sibling relationships among preschool children.

Psychometric validation of the sibling inventory of behavior in three- to six-year-old Chinese children

“…Similar to other studies on sibling relationship (Volling et al, 2002;Chen, 2019), the negative subscales of SIB and C-SIB also cover a comprehensive range of aspects including Rivalry, Aggression, and Avoidance. In contrast, previous instruments developed in China include Warmth (Li et al, 2019;Jiang et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022) and Acceptance Jiang et al, 2021 as the only indicators of positive sibling relationships. In the SIB and C-SIB, however, positive sibling interactions are composed of the more comprehensive three subscales of Companionship, Empathy, and Teaching.…”

“…In response to the urgent need of sibling relationship measurements, Chinese researchers have developed two scales in recent years. For example, an 18-item questionnaire developed by Jiang et al (2021) covers four subscales, namely, Sibling interaction , Acceptance , Warmth , and Rivalry . Another example is the Sibling Relationship Quality (SRQ) questionnaire for zero- to eight-year-old children, which includes three subscales of Warmth , Conflict , and Jealousy ( Li et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Studies demonstrated the significance of sibling teaching ( Howe et al, 2012 , 2016a , b ) and empathy ( Zhang et al, 2019 ) during the pre-school period. But there is a limited number of items about sibling teaching and empathy in SRQ ( Li et al, 2019 ; Wang et al, 2022 ), and about sibling aggression in the questionnaire developed by Jiang et al (2021) . Given the fact that the SIB is widely adopted with comprehensive coverage and solid psychometric properties, a validated Chinese version of SIB (C-SIB) is warranted to advance sibling researches in our specific context.…”