Today in class we learned about how people who have sisters are more likely to have a successful marriage. My teacher pointed out why:
- They are more likely to be more likely to be empathetic
- They are more likely to be sensitive
- They are more likely to be good at negotiating
Luckily, my two brothers have five sisters!
In an article called Sibling Relationships by Judy Dunn, she explains the importance of siblings:
Siblings
can also be an important source of support to children faced with stressful
experiences. For example, Jenkins (Jenkins, 1992; Jenkins & Smith, 1990)
reported that children growing up in disharmonious homes have fewer problems if
they have a good sibling relationship. It seems that both 6 offering
comfort to, and receiving comfort from, a sibling are associated with benefits
for children. Note that other studies of
parental separation and family reconstitution report that siblings are
relatively infrequent confidants for children (Dunn, Davies, O’Connor, &
Sturgess, submitted). But children faced with other negative life events report
becoming more intimate
and close with their siblings following the stressful event (Dunn et al., 1994a).
The
study of siblings has played an important role in changing our views of the
nature and development of children’s discovery of the mind – their understanding
of others’ emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and their grasp of the links between
such inner states and people’s behavior. In standard experimental settings, young
preschool children show limited understanding of “other minds” and feelings; in
contrast, in the context
of the emotional drama and the familiarity of in interactions with siblings,
they reveal remarkable powers of manipulating others’ emotions, anticipating
intensions, and of understanding the significance of inner states for human
action (Dunn, 1999). Their ability to tease, deceive, manage conflict by
anticipating the
other’s intentions and perspective, share an imaginative world in joint pretend
play, and engage in conversations about why people behave the way they do, with
reference to mental states as causes and consequences of action – all these are
seen in their daily interactions with their siblings in the second, third, and
fourth years of life. All reflect a growing sophistication about inner states
and social behavior. Sibling research thus has offered a new perspective on a
central aspect of early sociocognitive development.
