Affiliation:
1. MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
2. Department of Education University of Oxford Oxford UK
3. Department of Psychology and Human Development, UCL Institute of Education University College London London UK
Abstract
AbstractWe investigated longitudinal relations between siblings' problem and prosocial behavior, measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, among different sibship sizes in the UK's Millennium Cohort Study. We identified 3436 families with two children and 1188 families with three children. All children (cohort members and their older sibling [OS]) had valid data on behavior at two time points (in 2004 and 2006). Using structural equation model, we found that for internalizing and externalizing problems, OSs (MOS1 = 6.3 years, MOS2 = 9.1 years at T1) exerted a dominant effect on younger siblings (Mage = 3.12 years at T1; 49.7% boys) across sibship sizes. For prosocial behavior, there was OS dominance in two‐child families and youngest sibling dominance in three‐child families.
Subject
Developmental and Educational Psychology,Education,Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health