Abstract
Previous research indicates the importance of having high levels of attachment with parents in order to realise positive outcomes of psychological and subjective well-being in later-life. Additionally, sibling attachment in childhood may impact future psychological and subjective well-being directly and independently from parental influences. To our knowledge, there is no existing study that examines the moderating role of sibling attachment on the association between parental attachment and later-life well-being. Participants (n = 254) were asked to retrospectively rate their attachments to their parents and the sibling closest in age to them. Additionally, they completed self-report questionnaires probing current levels of depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, and satisfaction with life. The expected significant relationships between childhood attachments and later-life well-being were found for maternal and sibling attachments, but not paternal attachment. Furthermore, retrospectively-rated sibling attachment seemed to be a stronger predictor of later-life well-being than paternal attachment. Taken together, these findings indicate the importance of early-life attachment figures on future well-being. Furthermore, these findings concur with the general propositions of attachment theory, arguing that experiences with attachment figures during childhood heavily shape an individual’s developmental trajectory and their internal working models about the self, others, and the world. However, sibling attachment was not found to moderate the relationship between parental attachment and later-life psychological and subjective well-being. Speculative explanations as to why a moderating effect was not found include limited sibling resources, innate attachment effects, and contrast effects.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ainsworth, M. S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44(4), 709–716.
Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 26–46.
Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16(5), 427–454.
Baker, L. A., Silverstein, M., & Putney, N. M. (2008). Grandparents raising grandchildren in the United States: Changing family forms, stagnant social policies. Journal of Societal and Social Policy, 7, 53–69.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment (Vol. 1). New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.
Bretherton, I., Lambert, D., & Golby, B. (2005). Involved fathers of preschool children as seen by themselves and their wives: Accounts of attachment, socialization, and companionship. Attachment and Human Development, 7(3), 229–251.
Buist, K., Deković, M., & Prinzie, P. (2013). Sibling relationship quality and psychopathology of children and adolescents: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 97–106.
Buss, D. (2008). Evolutionary psychology: The science of the mind (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Carlson, E. A. (1998). A prospective longitudinal study of attachment disorganization/disorientation. Child Development, 69(4), 1107–1128.
Chen, Y., Kubzansky, L., & VanderWeele, T. (2019). Parental warmth and flourishing in mid-life. Social Science & Medicine, 220, 65–72.
Cicirelli, V. G. (1995). Sibling relationships across the life span. Boston, MA: Springer.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Cohen, S., & Willis, T. (1985). Stress, social support and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 307–357.
Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1994). Cognitive representations of attachment: The structure and function of working models. In K. Bartholomew & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships, attachment processes in adulthood (Vol. 5, pp. 53–92). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Conger, K. J., & Little, W. M. (2010). Sibling relationships during the transition to adulthood. Child Developmental Perspectives, 4(2), 87–94.
Cooper, M. L., Shaver, P. R., & Collins, N. L. (1998). Attachment styles, emotion regulation, and adjustment in adolescence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(5), 1380–1397.
Cox, M. J. (2010). Family systems and sibling relationships. Child Development Perspectives, 4(2), 95–96.
Cribb, J. (2009). Focus on families: New Zealand families of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, 35, 4–16.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71–75.
Dirks, M. A., Persram, R., Recchia, H. E., & Howe, N. (2015). Sibling relationships as sources of risk and resilience in the development and maintenance of internalizing and externalizing problems during childhood and adolescence. Clinical Psychology Review, 42, 145–155.
Eagly, A., & Wood, W. (2012). Social role theory. In P. A. Van-Lange, W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 458–476). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Feinberg, M. E., Solmeyer, A. R., & McHale, S. M. (2012). The third rail of family systems: Sibling relationships, mental and behavioral health, and preventive intervention in childhood and adolescence. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 15(1), 43–57.
Goodsell, T., & Meldrum, J. (2010). Nurturing fathers: A qualitative examination of child–father attachment. Early Child Development and Care, 180(1), 249–262.
Guarnieri, S., Smorti, M., & Tani, F. (2015). Attachment relationships and life satisfaction during emerging adulthood. Social Indicators Research, 121(3), 833–847.
Gullone, E., & Robinson, K. (2005). The inventory of parent and peer attachment—Revised (IPPA-R) for children: A psychometric investigation. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy: An International Journal of Theory & Practice, 12(1), 67–79.
Hampson, E., van Anders, S. M., & Mullin, L. I. (2006). A female advantage in the recognition of emotional facial expressions: Test of an evolutionary hypothesis. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27(6), 401–416.
Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. R. (1990). Love and work: An attachment-theoretical perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(2), 270–280.
Kim, J.-Y., McHale, S. M., Crouter, A. C., & Osgood, D. W. (2007). Longitudinal linkages between sibling relationships and adjustment from middle childhood through adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 43(4), 960–973.
Koohsar, A. A. H., & Bonab, B. G. (2011). Relation between quality of attachment and life satisfaction in high school administrators. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 954–958.
Körük, S., Öztürk, A., & Kara, A. (2016). The predictive strength of perceived parenting and parental attachment styles on psychological symptoms among Turkish University students. International Journal of Instruction, 9(2), 215–230.
Lee, A., & Hankin, B. L. (2009). Insecure attachment, dysfunctional attitudes, and low self-esteem predicting prospective symptoms of depression and anxiety during adolescence. Journal of Clinical, Child and Adolescent Psychology, 38(2), 219–231.
Lehman, B. J., Taylor, S. E., Kiefe, C. I., & Seeman, T. E. (2009). Relationship of early life stress and psychological functioning to blood pressure in the CARDIA study. Health Psychology, 28, 338–346.
Love, K. M., & Murdock, T. B. (2004). Attachment to parents and psychological well-being: An examination of young adult college students in intact families and stepfamilies. Journal of Family Psychology, 18(4), 600–608.
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335–343.
McBride, B. A., Dyer, W. J., Liu, Y., Brown, G. L., & Hong, S. (2009). The differential impact of early father and mother involvement on later student achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(2), 498–508.
McHale, S. M., Updegraff, K. A., & Whiteman, S. D. (2012). Sibling relationships and influences in childhood and adolescence. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(5), 913–930.
McKinney, C., & Renk, K. (2008). Differential parenting between mothers and fathers: Implications for late adolescents. Journal of Family Issues, 29(6), 806–827.
Mickelson, K. D., Kessler, R. C., & Shaver, P. R. (1997). Adult attachment in a nationally representative sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(5), 1092–1106.
Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2012). An attachment perspective on psychopathology. World Psychiatry, 11(1), 11–15.
Moran, K., Turiano, N., & Gentzler, A. (2018). Parental warmth during childhood predicts coping and wellbeing in adulthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 32(5), 610–621.
Nada-Raja, S., McGee, R., & Stanton, W. R. (1992). Perceived attachments to parents and peers and psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 21(4), 471–485.
Nickerson, A. B., & Nagle, R. (2004). The influence of parent and peer attachments on life satisfaction in middle childhood and early adolescence. Social Indicators Research, 66, 35–60.
Noller, P. (2005). Sibling relationships in adolescence: Learning and growing together. Personal Relationships, 12(1), 1–22.
Noom, M. J., Dekovíc, M., & Meeus, W. H. J. (1999). Autonomy, attachment and psychosocial adjustment during adolescence: A double edged sword? Journal of Adolescence, 22(6), 771–783.
Passanisi, A., Gervasi, A. M., Madonia, C., Guzzo, G., & Greco, D. (2015). Attachment, self-esteem and shame in emerging adulthood. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 191, 342–346.
Ponti, L., & Smorti, M. (2019). The roles of parental attachment and sibling relationships on life satisfaction in emerging adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36(6), 1747–1763.
Puig-Antich, J., & Chambers, W. (1978). The schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-aged children. New York: New York Psychiatric Institute.
R Core Team. (2015). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
Rosenberg, M. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York: Basic Books.
Russell, A., Aloa, V., Feder, T., Glover, A., Miller, H., & Palmer, G. (1998). Sex-based differences in parenting styles in a sample with preschool children. Australian Journal of Psychology, 50(2), 89–99.
Sroufe, L. A., Carlson, E. A., Levy, A. K., & Egeland, B. (1999). Implications of attachment theory for developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 11(1), 1–13.
Stafford, M., Kuh, D. L., Gale, C. R., Mishra, G., & Richards, M. (2016). Parent–child relationships and offspring’s positive mental wellbeing from adolescence to early older age. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11(3), 326–337.
Stocker, C. M., Burwell, R. A., & Briggs, M. L. (2002). Sibling conflict in middle childhood predicts children's adjustment in early adolescence. Journal of Family Psychology, 16(1), 50–57.
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Shannon, J. D., Cabrera, N. J., & Lamb, M. E. (2004). Fathers and mothers at play with their 2-and 3-year-olds: Contributions to language and cognitive development. Child Development, 75(6), 1806–1820.
Trinkle, S. J., & Bartholomew, K. (1997). Hierarchies of attachment relationships in young adulthood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14, 603–625.
van Buuren, S. V., & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, K. (2010). MICE: Multivariate imputation by chained equations in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 45, 1–68.
van Ijzendoorn, M., Schuengel, C., & Bakermans-Kranenbrug, M. (1999). Disorganized attachment in early childhood: Meta-analysis of precursors, concomitants, and sequelae. Development and Psychopathology, 11(2), 225–250.
Van Lissa, C. J., Keizer, R. B., Van-Lier, P. A. C., Meeus, W. H. J., & Branje, S. (2019). The role of fathers' versus mothers' parenting in emotion-regulation development from mid-late adolescence: Disentangling between-family differences from within-family effects. Developmental Psychology, 55(2), 377–389.
Waldinger, R. J., Vaillant, G. E., & Orav, E. J. (2007). Childhood sibling relationships as a predictor of major depression in adulthood: A 30-year prospective study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164(6), 949–954.
White, N., & Hughes, C. (2017). Why siblings matter: The role of brother and sister relationships in development and well-being. London: Routledge.
Wilkinson, R. B. (2004). The role of parental and peer attachment in the psychological health and self-esteem of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 33(6), 479–493.
Yeh, H. C., & Lempers, J. D. (2004). Perceived sibling relationships and adolescent development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 33(2), 133–147.
Zilberstein, K., & Messer, E. A. (2010). Building a secure base: Treatment of a child with disorganized attachment. Clinical Social Work Journal, 38(1), 85–97.
Zimmermann, J. J., Eisemann, M. R., & Fleck, M. P. (2008). Is parental rearing an associated factor of quality of life in adulthood? Quality of Life Research: An International Journal of Quality of Life Aspects of Treatment, Care and Rehabilitation, 17, 249–255.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standard of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964. Helsinki-declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standard. IRB for the study was approved by the Auckland University of Technology.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shepherd, D., Goedeke, S., Landon, J. et al. The Impact of Sibling Relationships on Later-Life Psychological and Subjective Well-Being. J Adult Dev 28, 76–86 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-020-09350-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-020-09350-4