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This study examined the mediating effect of parent-child relationships in the link between parental strategies for handling sibling conflict and sibling relationships. We conducted a survey of the parents of 1,368 children who had siblings and were enrolled in kindergarten, using the Child-Centered Scale, the Control Scale, the Nonintervention Scale, the Sibling Relationship Scale, and the Parent-Child Relationship Scale. The results showed that control, child-centered, and nonintervention strategies for handling sibling conflict each predicted sibling relationships, and parent-child relationships partially mediated the impact that the strategies had on sibling relationships. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords
sibling conflict, conflict-handling strategy, sibling relationship, parent-child relationship
The sibling relationship is one of the longest social relationships that most individuals experience (Noller, 2005), and it plays an important role in personal development (Conger & Kramer, 2010; McHale et al., 2012). Researchers have suggested that the more time siblings spend together, the more conflicts they have (Raffaelli, 1997). As a result, sibling conflict plays a crucial role in the development of interpersonal relationships. In sibling conflicts, children develop traits such as perseverance, compromise, communication, and coping mechanisms that can help them adapt to new social situations in the future (Smith & Ross, 2007). Studies have shown that disruptive sibling conflict can have a detrimental impact on children's development, especially in young children who are predisposed to behavioral issues (Katz et al., 1992). It can also lead to individual sleep issues, after-school behavior disorders, antisocial behavior, and poor peer interactions (Bank et al., 2004; Bekkhus et al., 2011; Breitenstein et al., 2018). As a result, the resolution of conflicts between siblings is attracting increasing research attention.
Parents, as important figures in childrens development, have a crucial impact on sibling conflict resolution. This is especially true for preschool children, who have relatively underdeveloped social skills and problem-solving abilities (Zhang, 2010). Therefore, this study explored the effect of parents strategies for handling sibling conflicts on childrens sibling relationships, as well as the mediating role of parent-child relationships in this link, using 3-6-year-old children as the research subjects.
Perozynski and Kramer (1999) identified three primary methods that parents employ to handle sibling conflicts: child centered, control, and nonintervention. The child-centered strategy is a scientific approach to handling sibling conflict, empowering...