Life Course Statuses and Sibling Relationship Quality during Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health ( N = 1,366), we examine how major life course statuses are related to sibling relationships during emerging adulthood with attention to similarities and differences in these statuses between sibling dyads. We find that full-time employment, marriage/cohabitation, and parenthood are related to more distant sibling relationships, whereas college education is related to closer sibling relationships. Similarities in employment between the siblings are related to closer relationships, but differences in education, marriage/cohabitation, and parenthood are related to closer relationships, in that respondents report more help-seeking and emotional closeness with their siblings who have higher education than theirs; unpartnered respondents report more calls and fewer fights with their partnered siblings; and childless respondents report more visits and emotional closeness with their parenting siblings. Examining both one’s and one’s sibling’s life course statuses is important in understanding life course variations in sibling relationships.