Sibling Relationships in Early Adulthood

• Main Author: 宋博鳳
• Other Authors: 林如萍
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/62386696417121638688

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 人類發展與家庭研究所 === 91 === Sibling Relationships in Early Adulthood Abstract One of the essential topics in human development is sibling relationships in early adulthood. It is hard to provide a clear picture regarding how early adults handle their sibling relationships because the relationships exist so naturally and what results from the relationships is easy to be ignored. The study revealed that early adulthood could be profiled through three dimensions and three possible factors that may influence the sibling relationship in early adulthood. There were two main goals in this study, which were (1) to profile the characteristics of sibling relationships in early adulthood, and (2) to determine factors that affect early adulthood sibling relationships. In order to have the data truly represent the study population, early adults in Taiwan, the study was done using a qualitative design and using semi-structured interview methods to collect data. Eight adults, four sibling pairs (gender x order of birth), participated in this study and they were between 25 to 35 years old. The study found that early adulthood relationships might be able to be profiled through the following three dimensions: (1) support and closeness, (2) disaffection and conflict handling, and (3) loyalty and obligation. Specifically, the support and closeness dimension includes emotional and psychological support, connection and communication channels between family members, and caring. The disaffection and conflict-handling dimension includes awareness, acceptability, and respect to individual differences, and flexibility under conflict situations. The loyalty and obligation dimension includes being loyal to family members as well as fulfilling obligations for the roles people play in their families. Based on the study results, there were three factors that affected the sibling relationships in early adulthood. These three factors are: (1) individual and interpersonal relationships, (2) family experiences, and (3) norm and value preferences of the culture. The individual and interpersonal factor was generalized from the impact of age, sex differences, personality similarity, birth order, and geographic proximity. The family factor might influence early adulthood relationships due to family-of-origin experiences, which include different memories result from his/her family, parent-child relationships, family nonnormative life events, and family affairs. The family-of-procreation experiences (i.e., marriage, having child/children, divorce) also might influence sibling relationships in early adulthood. Based on the traditional Chinese patriarchic culture, most Chinese believe: Men are better than women. Because of this belief, the study found that the norm/value preferences of the culture could be a factor that would also affect relationships in early adulthood. In this factor, issues such as recognition on individual identity, sexual modeling, and responsibilities and expectations in different sibling roles, are essential. The study is important because few studies have been done in this area. This study, in particular, provides an overview regarding the topic on sibling relationships in early adulthood as well as the issue on indigenous cognition. The results of the study may offer guidelines for future related studies on the same issue.