Social scientists increasingly recognize the importance that siblings play throughout the life course and the intrinsic and extrinsic benefits that this special kinship bond may provide. Although evidence suggests that the context of the sibling relationship changes over time, most of the research has ignored the significance of the sibling bond throughout early and middle adulthood.
The present study explores the relationship of family satisfaction, family strength, and family ritual to the quality of sibling relationships for college-age young adults. This investigation offers an important test of family systems theory by evaluating the interdependence of subsystems within the larger family system. The sample was drawn from college students enrolled in introductory family courses at two Midwestern universities. Participants were undergraduates between the ages of 18-23; unmarried or never married; had no children; had at least one living sibling; and were not a twin. The final sample consisted of 283 females and 25 males (N = 308). Participants responded to a series of self-report measures included in the Sibling Survey to assess demographic and personal information about the subject, their family and siblings.
Significant findings suggest the following conclusions regarding the significance of sibling and family relationships during young adulthood. First, young adults positively evaluated closeness to the sibling nearest in age. Based on retrospective reports, sibling relationships were closer in childhood and young adulthood than in adolescence. Secondly, there was a positive relationship among family strength, family satisfaction, family ritual and sibling warmth. Third, low levels of family strength and family satisfaction were related to higher sibling conflict and sibling rivalry. Fourth, high ritual routine was positively related to total sibling conflict; whereas high ritual meaning was negatively related to total sibling conflict. Fifth, high ritual routine was related to greater paternal sibling rivalry. Finally, sister-sister dyads reported higher levels of total sibling warmth, intimacy, emotional support, affection, knowledge, and admiration than sister-brother dyads. However, no statistically significant differences were found between gender dyad (sister-sister or sister-brother) and sibling conflict or sibling rivalry.