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This study utilized actor-partner interdependence modeling to examine the bidirectional effects of younger (Mage = 18 months) and older siblings (Mage = 48 months) on later empathy development in a large (n = 452 families), diverse (42% immigrant) Canadian sample. Controlling for parenting, demographic characteristics, sibling relationship quality, and within-child stability in empathie concern, both younger and older siblings' observed empathie concern uniquely predicted relative increases in the other's empathy over a period of 18 months. strength of the partner effects did not differ by birth order. Sex composition moderated the younger sibling partner effect, whereas age gap moderated the older sibling partner effect. This study highlights the important role that siblings play in enhancing the development of care and concern for others.

Family is an important context for cultural development, but little is known about the contributions of siblings. This study investigated whether older siblings’ cultural orientations and familism values predicted changes in younger siblings’ cultural orientations and familism values across 2 years and tested sibling characteristics and younger siblings’ modeling as moderators. Participants were 246 Mexican‐origin younger (Mage = 17.72; SD = 0.57) and older siblings (Mage = 20.65; SD = 1.57) and their parents. Findings revealed that older siblings’ Anglo orientations and familism values interacted with younger siblings’ modeling: When younger siblings reported high modeling, older siblings’ Anglo orientations and values predicted increases in younger siblings’ Anglo orientations and values. Discussion highlights the importance of siblings in cultural socialization.

Parent–adolescent conflict is frequent in families and has implications for youth adjustment and family relationships. Drawing on a family systems perspective, we examined mothers’, fathers’, and two adolescent-aged siblings’ (50.5 % females) reports of parent–adolescent conflict in 187 African American families. Using latent profile analysis in the context of an ethnic homogeneous design, we identified three family types based on levels of and differences between parent and youth conflict reports: low conflict, father high conflict, and younger sibling high conflict. Compared to low conflict families, youth in younger sibling high conflict families reported more depressive symptoms and risky behaviors. The results for parents’ acceptance revealed that, in comparison to low conflict families, older siblings in father high conflict families reported lower acceptance from mothers, and mothers in these families reported lower acceptance of their children; further, older siblings in younger sibling high conflict families reported less acceptance from fathers, and fathers in these families reported less acceptance of their children. Results underscore the significance of levels of and both differences between and direction of differences in parents’ and youth’s reports of their “shared” experiences, as well as the importance of examining the larger family contexts of dyadic parent-relationships.

Youth’s experiences with romantic relationships during adolescence and young adulthood have far reaching implications for future relationships, health, and well-being; yet, although scholars have examined potential peer and parent influences, we know little about the role of siblings in youth’s romantic relationships. Accordingly, this study examined the prospective longitudinal links between Mexican-origin older and younger siblings’ romantic relationship experiences and variation by sibling structural and relationship characteristics (i.e., sibling age and gender similarity, younger siblings’ modeling) and cultural values (i.e., younger siblings’ familism values). Data from 246 Mexican-origin families with older ( M  = 20.65 years; SD  = 1.57; 50 % female) and younger ( M  = 17.72 years; SD  = .57; 51 % female) siblings were used to examine the likelihood of younger siblings’ involvement in dating relationships, sexual relations, cohabitation, and engagement/marriage with probit path analyses. Findings revealed older siblings’ reports of involvement in a dating relationship, cohabitation, and engagement/marriage predicted younger siblings’ relationship experiences over a 2-year period. These links were moderated by sibling age spacing, younger siblings’ reports of modeling and familism values. Our findings suggest the significance of social learning dynamics as well as relational and cultural contexts in understanding the links between older and younger siblings’ romantic relationship experiences among Mexican-origin youth.

Social support networks play a key role in human livelihood security, especially in vulnerable communities. Here we explore how evolutionary ideas of kin selection and intrahousehold resource competition can explain individual variation in daily support network size and composition in a south-central Ethiopian agricultural community. We consider both domestic and agricultural help across two generations with different wealth-transfer norms that yield different contexts for sibling competition. For farmers who inherited land rights from family, firstborns were more likely to report daily support from parents and to have larger nonparental kin networks (n = 180). Compared with other farmers, firstborns were also more likely to reciprocate their parents’ support, and to help nonparental kin without reciprocity. For farmers who received land rights from the government (n = 151), middle-born farmers reported more nonparental kin in their support networks compared with other farmers; nonreciprocal interactions were particularly common in both directions. This suggests a diversification of adult support networks to nonparental kin, possibly in response to a long-term parental investment disadvantage of being middle-born sons. In all instances, regardless of inheritance, lastborn farmers were the most disadvantaged in terms of kin support. Overall, we found that nonreciprocal interactions among farmers followed kin selection predictions. Direct reciprocity explained a substantial part of the support received from kin, suggesting the importance of the combined effects of kin selection and reciprocity for investment from kin.

This study examined the role of sibling and friend characteristics in Mexican-American youth’s gender-typed characteristics (i.e., attitudes, interests, and leisure activities) in early versus middle adolescence using a sibling design. Mexican-American 7th graders ( M  = 12.51 years; SD  = .58) and their older siblings ( M  = 15.48 years; SD  = 1.57) from 246 families participated in home interviews and a series of seven nightly phone calls. Results revealed that younger/early adolescent siblings reported more traditional gender role attitudes than their older/middle adolescent siblings and older brothers were more traditional in their attitudes than older sisters. When comparing siblings’ gender-typed interests and leisure activities, boys reported more masculine orientations than girls and girls reported more feminine orientations than boys. Older brothers’ gender-typed characteristics were associated with the amount of time spent with and gender characteristics of their friendship group, but for younger brothers, sibling characteristics were associated with their gender-typed characteristics. In contrast, both sibling and friendship characteristics were significantly associated with older and younger sisters’ gender-typed characteristics. The discussion addressed the different correlates of older and younger sisters’ and brothers’ gender-typed characteristics.

In the USA, young people of Mexican-origin are more economically disadvantaged and experience higher birth rates than many other Latino groups. In this paper, we examine the influence of older siblings on the sexual and reproductive health of Mexican-origin immigrant women. Qualitative data were drawn from life history interviews with 21 first- and second-generation Mexican-origin women, aged 27-41 years old, resident in the Metro Denver area. Data suggest that older siblings may protect younger sisters from risky sexual behaviours through older siblings' responsibility and care for younger siblings, close and supportive sibling relationships, older siblings' advice about both sexual health and academic success, and sibling modelling. These mechanisms appear particularly protective due to the social and economic hardships immigrant families often face. Implications include fostering healthy sibling relationships and involving older siblings more fully in the sexuality education of younger siblings.

Current estimates suggest that by 2015, 60% of college students will be women, a change since 1970 when 59% were men. We investigated family dynamics that might explain the growing gender gap in college attendance, focusing on an ethnically diverse sample of 522 mixed sex sibling dyads from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. We examined whether the difference between sisters’ and brothers’ reports of their mothers’ expectations for, and involvement in, their education during adolescence predicted their differential odds of college attendance seven years later. Sisters were more likely than brothers to attend college, and this gap was more pronounced among non-Whites and non-Asians. Sisters also had higher grades in school than their brothers. Although there were no gender differences overall in maternal educational expectations or involvement, brothers reported greater maternal involvement than sisters in non-White and non-Asian families. After controlling for family background factors, the average of siblings’ reports of maternal treatment, and differences between siblings’ grades, the results revealed that as sisters reported greater maternal educational expectations than their brothers, it became more likely that only the sister rather than only the brother in the family attended college. The difference between brothers’ and sisters’ reports of their mothers’ educational involvement and their odds of attending college showed the same pattern of association but was not statistically significant. These results suggest that within-family social comparisons may play a role in sisters’ and brothers’ choices about attending college.

The younger siblings of childbearing adolescents have poorer school outcomes and exhibit more internalizing and externalizing problems compared to their peers without a childbearing sister. We test a model where living with an adolescent childbearing sister constitutes a major family stressor that disrupts mothers’ parenting and well-being, and through which, adversely affect youths’ adjustment. Data came from 243 Latino younger siblings (62% female, M age 13.7 years) and their mothers, 121 of whom lived with a childbearing adolescent sister and 122 of whom did not. Individual fixed-effects models controlled for earlier measures of each respective model construct, thereby reducing omitted variable bias from pre-existing group differences. Results show that, for boys, the relationship between living with a childbearing adolescent sister and youth outcomes was sequentially mediated through mothers’ stress and parenting (i.e., monitoring and nurturance). For girls, however, the relationship was mediated through mothers’ monitoring only. Findings elucidate the within-family processes that contribute to the problematic outcomes of youth living with childbearing adolescent older sisters.

In this article, we discuss the impact of migration and acculturation processes on the cultural, personal identity, and mental health of children who immigrate to a Western, multicultural environment, and the challenges clinicians in such environments face, when confronted with non-Western idioms of distress and healing practices. We do that by presenting a challenging clinical case of an 8-year-old girl who presented with very disorganized behavior, which matches a culturally accepted construct of spirit possession, in the context of migration trauma, acculturative stress, and new sibling transition. We identify cultural conflict in school and bullying as major mediators between acculturative stress and mental distress. We also aim at identifying vulnerability, risk and protective factors, and the importance of cultural coping resources. We explore in depth the patient’s cultural background and the family’s belief system and culturally shaped narratives, in order to arrive at a cultural formulation, which focuses on the significance of idioms of distress in shaping psychopathology and influencing the personal and interpersonal course of trauma- and stress-related disorders. We also call attention to the finding that in children, idioms of distress may manifest themselves in a somatic manner. We argue, together with other researchers, that spirit possession deserves more interest as an idiom of distress and a culture-specific response to traumatizing events. We finally emphasize the importance of an anti-reductionist clinical stance, that is able to use different levels of understanding processes of distress and healing, and seeks to reconciliate cultural divides and integrate different explanatory frameworks and help-seeking practices.