Maternal regulation of sibling interactions in the preschool years: observational study in Japanese families.
Characteristics of three maternal regulating behaviors--(1) reference to one sibling's actions or emotional states toward the other sibling, (2) encouragement of sibling interactions, (3) distraction of one sibling's attention away from the other sibling-and their associations with children's positive and negative behaviors toward their siblings were investigated through semistructured home observations for 40 sibling pairs (1-4 years, 2-8 years) and their mothers in Japanese families. Maternal regulating behaviors were observed more frequently when the younger sibling was still in an early developmental stage in the preschool years, although the findings were modest. The older sibling's negative behaviors toward the younger sibling positively correlated with maternal distraction toward the younger; alternatively, the younger sibling's negative behaviors do not correlate with maternal distraction but do correlate with maternal encouragement directed toward the older sibling. Reliable associations were found between maternal regulating behaviors and prosocial exchanges between siblings; maternal reference to the younger sibling's actions or emotional states directed toward the older sibling was associated with the older sibling's positive behavior toward the younger sibling. Maternal regulating behaviors during mother-sibling triadic interactions were associated with the quality of sibling relationships.
Kojima
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Department of Comparative and Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Japan. kojima@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp
D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D010553:Personality Development; D012801:Sibling Relations