{"id":24714,"date":"2018-06-25T17:37:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T21:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=24714"},"modified":"2022-03-16T10:49:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T14:49:20","slug":"sibling-relationships-predict-educational-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/sibling-relationships-predict-educational-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Sibling Relationships Can Predict Educational Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study from researchers at Penn State University suggests that childhood relationships between siblings <\/span>may impact their relative educational success<\/span><\/a> later in life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The paper is published in the journal <\/span>Child Development<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The study<\/b><\/h2>\n

For about 15 years, the Penn State researchers followed the first- and second-born children of 152 families.<\/span><\/p>\n

These families were primarily European-Americans living in small cities, towns and rural areas in central Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through a series of interviews beginning when the children were around age 10 and concluding in their mid-twenties, the researchers gathered information about the dynamics of their families.<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically, they investigated the warmth of the sibling relationships and the amount of time siblings spent together. <\/span><\/p>\n

They also asked about siblings\u2019 relative relationships with their parents, and whether they felt they were treated equally by parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

They then compared this information to their level of educational attainment. Specifically, during final interviews around age 26, they were asked about their levels of educational attainment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers then analyzed this information using binary logistic regression. <\/span><\/p>\n

This allowed them to see whether childhood relationships between siblings predicted their likelihood of achieving \u201csame attainment,\u201d where both siblings had or had not graduated from college by age 26, or \u201cdifferent attainment,\u201d where one sibling had graduated and another had not.<\/span><\/p>\n

The findings<\/b><\/h2>\n

They found that siblings who described having warmer relationships and were treated equally by their parents during childhood were more likely to achieve similar levels of education. <\/span><\/p>\n

Siblings who felt that one child received preferential treatment from their parents over the course of their childhood were less likely to have achieved the same level of education. <\/span><\/p>\n

These results held up after controlling for siblings\u2019 grade point averages across childhood and adolescence.<\/span><\/p>\n

The implications<\/b><\/h2>\n

The researchers suggest that these results demonstrate the influence of family dynamics on a child\u2019s educational success.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile school is obviously important, this study helps show that what goes on inside families can have an impact, as well,\u201d <\/span>Susan McHale<\/span><\/a>, distinguished professor of human development and family studies at Penn State, said in a statement. \u201cWarmth from siblings may not mean you\u2019re more likely to go to college, but it seems to be a factor in how similarly the two siblings turn out. People don\u2019t tend to think about siblings being important to academic achievement, but our findings highlight the importance of family experiences–beyond what happens at school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The study also breaks new ground by demonstrating that familial dynamics beyond parenting can have an effect on a child\u2019s educational success. <\/span><\/p>\n

While previous research has demonstrated that parenting can affect educational achievement, sibling relationships are an under-researched, but evidently important factor in a child\u2019s educational development.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings underscore the importance of moving beyond a focus on the parenting of individual children in research on family socialization processes in educational attainment, to consider the role of siblings, including both siblings\u2019 direct effects in their daily exchanges such as sibling warmth and siblings\u2019 indirect effects such as through social comparison processes involving parents\u2019 differential treatment,\u201d said <\/span>Xiaoran Sun<\/span><\/a>, a Penn State doctoral candidate in human development and family studies. \u201cParents need to be aware of the influences that siblings can have on one another and monitor their own differential treatment of their children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, the research demonstrates how sibling relationships can be a positive factor in a child\u2019s development. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sun said that there has been very little research on the role of sibling experiences in positive development, including academic achievement; prior research on sibling relationships tended to focus on risky behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research also demonstrates that children are keenly aware of differences in treatment from parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChildren are vigilant in noticing how they\u2019re treated relative to their siblings, and parents need to be aware of this and on their guard,\u201d McHale said in a statement. \u201cMany parents treat their children differently and have very good reasons to do so, but children need to be aware of parents\u2019 reasons, and parents have to have conversations with their children to explain those reasons. If kids perceive their treatment as fair or justified, even if it\u2019s different from their siblings\u2019, then there\u2019s not the same negative effect.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The team is currently researching other aspects of sibling relationships. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been testing whether and how early sibling experiences predict siblings\u2019 couple relationship experiences, such as their attitudes toward marriage and orientations to intimacy,\u201d said Sun. \u201cWe also need to examine whether findings in this study replicate in other ethnic groups.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new study from researchers at Penn State University suggests that childhood relationships between siblings may impact their relative educational success later in life. The paper is published in the journal Child Development. The study For about 15 years, the Penn State researchers followed the first- and second-born children of 152 families. These families were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":24720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[249,402,403,404,405,406,407,408,409,410,411,412,413,414,415,416,417,418,419,420,421,230,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pennsylvania-state-university-main-campus","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-abington","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-altoona","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-beaver","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-berks","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-brandywine","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-dubois","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-erie-behrend-college","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-fayette-eberly","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-greater-allegheny","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-harrisburg","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-hazleton","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-lehigh-valley","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-mont-alto","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-new-kensington","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-schuylkill","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-shenango","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-wilkes-barre","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-worthington-scranton","category-pennsylvania-state-university-penn-state-york","category-pennsylvania-state-university-world-campus","category-news","category-lead-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Sam Benezra","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/sam-benezra\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A new study from researchers at Penn State University suggests that childhood relationships between siblings may impact their relative educational success later in life. The paper is published in the journal Child Development. The study For about 15 years, the Penn State researchers followed the first- and second-born children of 152 families. These families were…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/campus-family-visit.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}