Children and adults benefit from close and supportive relationships with their siblings. Research shows that a positive sibling relationship is linked with mental and physical health and the quality of peer and romantic relationships across the lifespan. Parents often have multiple children in the hope that they will be friends for life, only to face the daily reality of frequent and disruptive sibling fighting.
Siblings are natural competitors for family resources—like parents’ and caregivers’ love and attention. Sometimes, however, rivalrous behavior can dominate siblings’ interactions, leading to sibling conflict and creating an antagonistic family environment. Parents play a significant role in reducing rivalry and creating harmony between their children. In this post, we describe three strategies parents and caregivers can use to foster a positive sibling relationship.
Parents can help their children develop warm relationships by supporting their development of interpersonal skills. Skills like sharing, patience, perspective-taking, and cooperation are essential to establishing a positive sibling relationship and quality relationships with others outside the family.
To help young children gain these abilities, parents can create........