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The Sibling Relationship as a Source of Shared Environment

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Gene-Environment Interplay in Interpersonal Relationships across the Lifespan

Part of the book series: Advances in Behavior Genetics ((AIBG,volume 3))

Abstract

Siblings are many children’s most constant social companions and evidence is building that the sibling relationship serves an important role in children’s development. Behavioral genetic (BG) studies of sibling relationships have shown some evidence of genetic contributions to sibling interaction. The majority of the variance, however, appears to be shared environmental, making the sibling relationship a prime candidate for research on family environment influences. BG studies can further our understanding of sibling socialization effects on children’s development by exploring additional dimensions of the sibling relationship and investigating the joint influences of siblings and peers.

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Correspondence to Shirley McGuire .

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McGuire, S., Palaniappan, M., Larribas, T. (2015). The Sibling Relationship as a Source of Shared Environment. In: Horwitz, B., Neiderhiser, J. (eds) Gene-Environment Interplay in Interpersonal Relationships across the Lifespan. Advances in Behavior Genetics, vol 3. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2923-8_4

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