Essay example --

Throughout life we lose grandparents, parents and grow apart from close friends but sibling relationships can be one of the most enduring relationships an individual will have throughout their lifetime. Although there are many things that can affect sibling relationships such as gender, age gaps and sex composition, this paper will examine the association between the parent-child relationship and the sibling relationships in adolescence. Based on the family systems theory which suggests that families are made up of interconnected subsystems that influence each other (Whitchurch and Constantine, 1993), it is not surprising that researchers use this theory as a way to study the effects that one relationship may have on the other. By examining the research, it is clear that the parent child relationship has an unquestionable effect on siblings’ relationships. The current literature supports this claim by presenting evidence based on the warmth/conflict within sibling relatio nships, parent’s differential treatment of their children, as well as the indirect/direct involvement parents have on their children’s sibling relationships. People believe most siblings have a love/hate relationship but the amount of one emotion over the other may not be directly the siblings own doings. Variables such as the parent-adolescent relationship can shape how siblings interact with one another whether one consciously notices or not. Derkman, Engels, Kuntsche, Van Der Vorst and Scholte (2011) conducted a five year longitudinal study on 428 families that evaluated the perceived parental support towards children, and the warmth/conflict between siblings during adolescence. Using self reports they found that sibling warmth and adolescent parent su... ...ng the problem themselves, and often punishing the behavior. The results demonstrated that mother’s preferential style of involvement was intervention, and fathers more often used coaching. It was found that when mothers and fathers used coaching as their style of involvement during conflicts between siblings it was related to greater levels of sibling warmth afterwards. Although both mothers and fathers used the coaching technique, mothers less often used non-involvement and more often used intervention than fathers. The style of involvement parents choose to use during sibling conflicts influence the way siblings learn to cope and deal with troubling situation, and so the coaching involvement style is reported to be the most effective because it shows the adolescents the parents are involved and care, yet give them room to grow and develop skills of their own.