Trajectories of children's social interactions with their infant sibling in the first year: a multidimensional
Wonjung Oh1, Brenda L Volling2, Richard Gonzalez3
1Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Texas Tech University.
Insights
Early sibling interactions show diverse patterns, with most children being positively engaged. However, some develop escalating or early antagonism, influenced by parenting stress, child temperament, and parenting styles.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Family Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Sibling relationships are crucial for social development.
- Understanding early interaction patterns is key to identifying potential challenges.
- Longitudinal studies are needed to track developmental trajectories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify distinct longitudinal patterns of children's social behaviors toward infant siblings.
- To examine the interplay of child and parent factors in shaping these trajectories.
- To investigate the emergence of positive engagement, antagonism, and avoidance.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal analysis of children's social behaviors (positive engagement, antagonism, avoidance) toward infant siblings.
- Latent class analysis to identify distinct developmental trajectories.
- Path modeling using a Process × Person × Context × Time framework.
Main Results:
- Three distinct patterns emerged: positively-engaged (50%), escalating-antagonism (42%), and early-onset antagonism (8%).
- Escalating antagonism was linked to low parental self-efficacy, parenting stress, and child dysregulated temperament.
- Early-onset antagonism was associated with punitive parenting in response to antagonistic behavior.
Conclusions:
- Significant heterogeneity exists in early sibling interaction patterns.
- Child factors (temperament) and parent factors (self-efficacy, stress, parenting style) significantly influence these trajectories.
- Early identification of at-risk patterns can inform targeted interventions.
Abstract:
Individual differences in longitudinal trajectories of children's social behaviors toward their infant sibling were examined simultaneously across multiple social dimensions: Positive engagement (moving toward), antagonism (moving against), and avoidance (moving away). Three distinct social patterns were identified: (C1) positively-engaged (n = 107, 50%); (C2) escalating-antagonism (n = 90, 42%); and (C3) early-onset antagonism (n = 16, 8%). Children in the positively-engaged class had high levels of positive engagement with their infant siblings, coupled with low levels of antagonism and avoidance. The escalating-antagonism class was positively-engaged in sibling interaction with a steep escalation in antagonistic behavior and avoidance from 4 to 12 months. Children in the early-onset antagonism class displayed the highest level of antagonistic behavior starting as early as 4 months, and became increasingly avoidant over time. A path model, guided by a Process × Person × Context × Time model, revealed that low parental self-efficacy heightened by parenting stress and children's dysregulated temperament was directly related to the escalating-antagonism pattern. Punitive parenting in response to children's antagonistic behavior increased the likelihood of being in the early-onset antagonism class. Together, the results highlighted heterogeneity in the earliest emergence of sibling interaction patterns and the interplay of child and parent factors in predicting distinct sibling interaction trajectory patterns.
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