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Sibling Relationships and Adolescent Adjustment: Longitudinal Associations in Two-Parent African American Families

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Abstract

Sibling relationships have been described as love–hate relationships by virtue of their emotional intensity, but we know little about how sibling positivity and negativity operate together to affect youth adjustment. Accordingly, this study charted the course of sibling positivity and negativity from age 10 to 18 in African American sibling dyads and tested whether changes in relationship qualities were linked to changes in adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Participants were consecutively-born siblings [at Time 1, older siblings averaged 14.03 (SD = 1.80) years of age, 48 % female; younger siblings averaged 10.39 (SD = 1.07) years of age, 52 % female] and two parents from 189 African American families. Data were collected via annual home interviews for 3 years. A series of multi-level models revealed that sibling positivity and sibling negativity declined across adolescence, with no significant differences by sibling dyad gender constellation. Controlling for age-related changes as well as time-varying parent-adolescent relationship qualities, changes in sibling negativity, but not positivity, were positively related to changes in adolescents’ depressive symptoms and risky behaviors. Like parent–adolescent relationships, sibling relationships displayed some distancing across adolescence. Nevertheless, sibling negativity remained a uniquely important relational experience for African American adolescents’ adjustment.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01-HD32336) to Susan M. McHale and Ann C. Crouter and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R21-AA017490) to Shawn D. Whiteman.

Conflict of interest

The authors report no conflict of interests.

Author contributions

S.D.W. conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, aided in the analysis and interpretation of the data, and drafted the manuscript; A.R.S. participated in the design and coordination of the study, performed the statistical analysis, interpretation of the data, and helped draft the manuscript; S.M.M. aided in the conceptualization of the study and the interpretation of the results and helped draft the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, 1202 W. State St., West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Shawn D. Whiteman

  2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, Beecher-Dock House, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Anna R. Solmeyer

  3. Social Science Research Institute and Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, 114 Henderson (North), University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Susan M. McHale

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  1. Shawn D. Whiteman
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Correspondence to Shawn D. Whiteman.

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Whiteman, S.D., Solmeyer, A.R. & McHale, S.M. Sibling Relationships and Adolescent Adjustment: Longitudinal Associations in Two-Parent African American Families. J Youth Adolescence 44, 2042–2053 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0286-0

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