Mexican-origin siblings’ unique and shared perspectives of sibling conflict: Links with adjustment

Abstract

Siblings are ubiquitous in the lives of youth, but sibling conflict is linked to adjustment problems and risky behaviors. To advance understanding of older and younger siblings’ unique and shared perspectives of conflict in Mexican-origin families, our study addressed two goals. First, using Multitrait-Multimethod Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MTMM-CFA; Kenny & Kashy, 1992), we estimated the variance accounted for by older and younger siblings’ unique and shared experiences of the frequency of their conflict. A shared viewpoint indicates commonality in siblings’ reported experiences, whereas a unique perspective encompasses each sibling’s distinct perceptions of their conflict. Second, we examined links between older and younger siblings’ unique and shared conflict factors and each sibling’s depressive symptoms and risky behavior. Participants were two siblings ( Mage = 15.48 years for older and Mage = 12.55 years for younger siblings) from 246 Mexican-origin families who were interviewed in their homes. Results indicated that the shared conflict factor accounted for most of the variance in older siblings’ reports of conflict frequency, whereas the unique factor accounted for the largest portion of the variance in younger siblings’ reports. Further, for older siblings, the shared conflict factor was linked to their individual adjustment, whereas for younger siblings, the unique factor predicted their adjustment. Parsing siblings’ reports of the frequency of their relational conflict, specifically the extent to which perspectives overlap versus are distinctive, provides novel insights about the role of siblings’ conflict experiences in youth adjustment. Additionally, it offers directions for future research and has the potential to inform existing sibling conflict programs.