Examined four-year olds' use of mental state terms in conversations. Found that more references to mental states were made in conversations with siblings and friends than with mothers. Frequent use of terms by both partners was related to cooperative interaction in child-friend and child-sibling dyads. Found associations with measures of language…

Examined family- and sibling-type differences in sibling relationship quality and links between sibling relationship quality and child behavior problems among 192 families with a 5-year-old target child and an older sibling. Found that sibling negativity was highest in single-mother families. Found that full-siblings were more negative than half-…

Patterns of mother and sibling object labeling were observed during play. Subjects were 40 Mexican-descent mothers, their children aged 2-3, and older siblings. Mothers provided names for objects (referential labeling) as often as they mentioned objects within the ongoing activity (labeling in action), while siblings more frequently used…

Ten ideas are outlined for helping hearing children feel closer to and more comfortable with the lives of their deaf siblings. Ideas include, among others, visiting the hearing-impaired sibling's classroom, touring the audiology booth, showing deafness-related movies, starting a sign language club, upgrading the school library, and sponsoring a…

The long hours that latchkey children are alone make them sexually vulnerable and provide them with increased opportunities to participate in sexual activity. Their sexual development is as likely influenced by peers, older siblings, television, movies, and books as by their parents. (IAH)

Compared daughters who were principal caregivers to disabled elderly mothers with their geographically proximate sisters and brothers in amount of help they provided, effects of care they experienced, and feelings toward siblings' interactions regarding caregiving. Found negative intersibling interactions associated with less emotional closeness…

Analyzes three primetime family sitcoms in order to describe the nature of sibling interaction in television families. Research on television families is examined, and questions are raised concerning the value of television sibling images as role models for real people, and the effects of these models on family and peer relationships. (27…

The extent to which maternal behavior, children's temperament, age, and family structure variables are associated with dimensions of sibling relationships was investigated with a sample of 96 families with younger siblings aged 3-6 years and older siblings aged 5-10 years. (PCB)

Describes study in which three children with autism were trained to initiate social interactions with normally developing peers. The findings offer evidence that children with autism can learn to initiate and maintain a social interaction with their peers and that these skills will generalize to novel settings and people. (LKS)

Adjustment to having a sibling who is gifted was explored with 366 triads consisting of a mother and two children, ages 7 through 14, of whom either one child was gifted, both were gifted, or neither was gifted. Having a sibling who is gifted did not appear to be stressful. (SW)

Examined relationships between adults with mental retardation and their nonhandicapped siblings and the effect of these relationships on the well-being of aging mothers in 411 families. Results indicated mothers whose children provided support to the adult with retardation had better well-being than mothers with no other children or no involved…

Found that, in unstructured building sessions, kindergartners were more likely to observe, imitate, and consult their second- or third-grade siblings than their older peers. Older siblings were also more likely to provide additional explanations and positive feedback than older peers when instructing younger children. (MDM)

Comparisons between sibling relationships in industrialized and nonindustrialized societies revealed differences in how siblings are defined, cultural norms regulating sibling role responsibilities, importance of sibling structure variables, sibling caretaking and socialization, relationship between siblings, and range of variation in sibling…

Interviews with 22 mothers of children with ambulatory disability and 33 nondisabled siblings showed no differences in sibling's child care responsibilities, general home responsibilities, or independence related to severity of the ambulatory disability. A difference in the amount of social activity, reported by mothers, was not confirmed by…

Investigated the associations made by fifth- and sixth-grade children and their closest age siblings between siblings' affective relationship quality and conflict strategies. Found that focal siblings who engaged in more destructive conflicts reported greater negativism in their relationships, frequency of conflict was positively correlated with…