Adults’ Expectations for Children’s Sibling Roles

Abstract

This study assesses generally shared norms for children’s sibling roles by examining adults’ role expectations for older brother, older sister, younger brother, and younger sister. Subjects listed prescriptions and proscriptions for each sibling in one of 12 two-child families with target children designated as 4 and 1, 7 and 4, or 10 and 7 years old for each of four sex compositions. Subjects had more, and relatively more positive, role expectations for older siblings than for younger siblings. Expectations differed qualitatively for the siblings (e.g. teaching, help, protection, and caretaking were associated with older siblings, learning, deference, and admiration with younger siblings). As the ages of the target children increased, role expectations for the siblings became more alike in some ways (e.g. affection and aggression) but less alike in others (e.g. respect and annoyance). The sex composition of the pair minimally influenced subjects’ responses; yet sibling roles for same-sex pairs were more differentiated than roles for mixed-sex pairs. Subjects’ sibling status did not affect their responses. The study provides a detailed description of children’s sibling roles and supported the prospect of using role theory as a framework for considering sibling relationships.