| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立師範學院 === 兒童發展研究所 === 93 === Abstract
This study explored the quality of interaction and transition of relationship between siblings. The researcher observed the brother-sister interactions at home for one and a half year, starting when the brother was 31 months old and the sister was eight months old. In addition to home observation, the researcher interviewed the mother informally to understand her perspective on sibling interactions.
The study results were organized and presented in a story form. The first chapter described how the brother-sister dyad interacted with each other while sharing. When sharing objects, the nature of the objects and parents’ intervention influenced the brother’s behaviors. The second chapter described the brother’s competition for parental attention. When parental attention was on the sister, the brother would imitate the sister’s actions or interrupted the activity between parents and the sister. The third chapter described how the mother provided scaffold for the brother to care his younger sister. The brother became more capable of caring his sister. The last chapter described the positive and negative interactions between the siblings. The dyad’s relationship became more hierarchical, in which the sister was a fellow to her brother.
Moreover, the results were discussed in three aspects. First, sibling interactions were reviewed in terms of sharing, rivalry for parental attention, care, communication, and teaching. Regarding transition, as time went by, the brother became more and more active, and the sister got better verbal and movement skills to express her intentions while interaction. Finally, the findings also revealed differential parental treatment. To avoid conflicts was the major principle for parental intervention. Besides, the mother facilitated the positive interactions for the siblings in every possible way. In order to promote sharing, parents usually gave the firstborn more power to control resources. Even if the brother did not share or share unequally with his younger sister, his parents did not force him to share and redirected the sister’s attention right away. Due to these practices, the sibling relationship was gradually like the chief and the fellow.
Keywords: Sibling interactions, Sibling relationship.
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