Establishing the Association Between Older Siblings and Younger Children's Working Memory and Cognitive Flexibility in Kindergarten

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

An indication for a child’s readiness for school is their demonstration of social emotional competence and cognitive skills such as self-regulation (Blair & Razza, 2007; Fitzpatrick & Pagani, 2011; Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009; Rimm-Kauffman, Curby, Grimm, Nathanson, & Brock, 2009). Many of these early abilities that form the basis for school readiness emerge initially in the home environment (Bernier, Carlson, Deschênes, & Matte-Gagné, 2012; Baker, 2013; Engelhardt et al., 2016; Segers, Damhuis, van de Sande, & Verhoeven, 2016); consequently, socioemotional and cognitive development is usually attributed to parents (Eisenberg et al., 2005; Hill, 2001; McWayne, Fantuzzo, Cohen, & Sekino, 2004), without considering the impact of other family members. Given that siblings’ engagement with younger children is also conducive to modeling socioemotional norms for younger children (Correa-Chávez & Rogoff, 2009; Dunn, 2015; Garner, 1995; Jarrett, Hamilton, & Coba-Rodriguez, 2015; Kennedy et al., 2015; Kibler, Palacios, Simpson-Baird, Bergey, & Yoder, 2016; McAlister & Peterson, 2007; McAlister & Peterson, 2013; Padilla-Walker, Harper, & Jensen, 2010) siblings’ role in developing other skills for school readiness such as self-regulation need to be more fully defined.

In an effort to reinforce and expand upon evidence linking the presence of siblings to underlying school readiness skills such as self-regulation, we will examine how having an older sibling relates to the central self-regulation skills of cognitive flexibility and working memory in early childhood (McClelland & Cameron, 2011; Miyake et al., 2000). We also hope to explore little studied characteristics of siblings that might differentially influence interactions such as age range and gender (Butcher & Case, 1994; Kaestner, 1997; Kibler et al., 2016; Padilla-Walker et al., 2010; Stewart, 1983). The present study addresses these research questions: How are 1) having an older sibling 2) having an older sibling in a proximal age range and 3) gender of an older sibling associated with children’s cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, and working memory in fall of kindergarten? We hypothesized that having an older sibling would be advantageous for working memory and cognitive flexibility.

Discussion and Significance
As predicted, having older siblings is indicative of higher self-regulation in kindergarten for focal children. The current findings should incite further research that looks beyond parents, acknowledging siblings as resources for self-regulation development and subsequent school readiness in the context of family engagement and childhood early intervention

Author

• Tatiana Yasmeen Hill, University of Virginia