Sibling Relational Aggression: Links to Latinx Children’s Adjustment and Physical Health Symptoms

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Sibling relational aggression includes behaviors that are intended to harm by damaging sisters’ and brothers’ close relationships through manipulation, exclusion, withdrawing support/acceptance, and spreading rumors to elicit rejection (O’Brien & Crick, 1995). Research with European American adolescents reveals that sibling relational aggression is associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety and lower levels of self-worth (Campione-Barr et al., 2014; Gallagher et al., 2018) but sibling relational aggression in other sociocultural contexts has received limited empirical attention. Given the role of siblings in Latinx families as key providers of support and companionship—as well as sources of contention and conflict (Killoren et al., 2015)— we examined the adjustment correlates of sibling relational aggression in Latinx families with school-aged children. We hypothesized that sibling relational aggression would be associated with higher depressive symptoms, lower self-worth, and more negative daily mood and physical health symptoms. Further, we expected that such associations would be stronger for sisters (and dyads including sisters) given their stronger relationship orientations (Maccoby, 1998), and for younger siblings, who are more likely to look up to their older siblings than the reverse (McHale et al., 2012).
Data came from Latinx sibling pairs in 216 families recruited from elementary schools in a southwestern metropolitan area. Older and younger siblings were 10.63 years (SD = 0.40; 45% female) and 8.27 years of age (SD = 1.06; 51% female), on average, and from predominantly immigrant families of Mexican origin (68% foreign-born; 84% Mexican-origin). Median family income was $24,000 (SD = $24,413). Data were collected during afterschool survey sessions and a series of seven daily diary calls. In afterschool sessions, older and younger siblings rated: (a) experiences of sibling relational aggression (e.g., “[Sibling’s name] tries to hurt me by calling me names and making fun of me in front of other kids”; O’Brien & Crick, 1995); (b) depressive symptoms (Kovacs, 1981); and (c) self-worth (Harter, 1982). Data on negative mood (e.g., upset, irritable) and health symptoms (e.g., headache, stomachache) were collected during each of the seven daily phone calls (McHale et al., 2016). Model covariates included child age, sibling gender, sibling dyad constellation, birth order, and mother nativity.
Descriptively, older siblings reported more frequent experiences of sibling relational aggression than did younger siblings, M = 2.04 (SD = 0.94), and M = 1.86 (SD = 1.03), respectively, t (192) = 2.04, p < .05, but there were no significant gender or dyad constellation differences. Next, we conducted multilevel models accounting for siblings clustered within families. As shown in Table 1, sibling relational aggression was associated with higher depressive symptoms, lower self-worth, and more negative daily mood and physical health symptoms. There was no evidence of moderation by sibling gender, birth order, or sibling dyad constellation. Additional analyses will examine how sibling relational aggression is related to other sibling and family dynamics. Discussion will offer directions for future research on sibling relational aggression and its correlates in Latinx families.

Authors

• Annabella M. Gallagher, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Kimberly Updegraff, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan McHale, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daye Son, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mark E. Feinberg, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author