Sibling Jealousy: Concept, Measurement and Theory

Qian Guoying

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240225

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (2) : 467-473. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240225

Psychological statistics, Psychometrics & Methods

Sibling Jealousy: Concept, Measurement and Theory

Qian Guoying

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Abstract

During the transition from one-child to multi-child families, sibling competition and jealousy have become high-frequency social concerns and a real problem for many young parents. The birth of a younger child often leads to adaptation issues for the first-born child. Parents of the only-child families need to pay more attention to a new relationship that emerges after the birth of a second child, namely sibling relationships, which often lead to a series of problematic behaviors among siblings due to jealousy. Therefore, clarifying the concept, measurement methods, and theoretical mechanisms of sibling jealousy is of great theoretical and practical importance in seeking strategies for healthy child development in the context of the multi-child policy.
This article begins with a brief overview of the concept and development of sibling jealousy.
Sibling jealousy refers to the complexity that arises when one child's close relationship with a parent in the family is threatened or challenged by another child. Many studies have shown that infants up to 1 year of age exhibit a variety of expressions of sibling jealousy. As children grow and develop cognitively, sibling jealousy undergoes developmental changes in childhood. Sibling jealousy in infancy is triggered by instinct and sibling threats to caregiver resources, sibling jealousy in early childhood is due to protests made by young children when they do not receive full parental attention, and sibling jealousy in adolescence arises primarily because of differential parental treatment.
Second, we discuss the measurement of sibling jealousy, including the interviews and the triadic experiment.
The interviews focus on jealous behavior and its severity in daily life. One is the Sibling Jealousy Interview by Thompson and Halberstadt, which measures the frequency, duration, and intensity of children's sibling jealousy as well as children's views and reactions to jealousy events. The other is the Sibling Inventory of Differential Experience, which measures siblings' perceptions of differential parental treatment, including six dimensions: privileges, chores, conflict, emotions, punishment, and time spent together. The triadic laboratory paradigm, a common situational experimental observation method for assessing sibling jealousy, is designed with a 9-minute jealousy scenario coded for emotional jealousy and behavioral dysregulation.
Finally, theoretical mechanisms on sibling jealousy are described from the perspectives of individuals, families, and interrelationships, respectively. Directions for future research are also proposed. In terms of research contents, the psychological mechanism of sibling jealousy is revealed in depth. In terms of research methods, the virtual scenario experiment paradigm should be created. In terms of research value, the transformation mechanism and positive significance of sibling jealousy are examined in depth.

Key words

sibling jealousy / measurement / triadic laboratory paradigm / theoretical mechanisms

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Qian Guoying. Sibling Jealousy: Concept, Measurement and Theory[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(2): 467-473 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240225

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