Title: The Relationship Between Sibling Relationship Quality and Psychosocial Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood
Description: This dissertation focuses on the impact of sibling relationship quality on psychological outcomes in 1361 emerging adults between the ages of 18 and 29. Previous research has demonstrated a strong link between sibling relationship quality and psychosocial well-being; however, these studies have focused mostly on children, adolescents, and later life adults. There has been little research exploring the effects of sibling relationship quality on psychological well-being in emerging adults. Because emerging adulthood is a time of considerable change, it has been deemed important to better understand the association between the perceived quality of the sibling relationship (warmth, conflict, and/or rivalry) and both sibling relationship variables (age difference, gender concordance, sibling contact, and minority status) and psychological variables (positive affect, negative affect, self esteem, and altruism) during this developmental time period. Results suggest that, in this sample, the quality of the sibling relationship, as measured by warmth, conflict, and rivalry is significantly related to measures of psychological outcome, specifically affectivity, self-esteem, and altruism, while controlling for demographic and familial structural variables (age difference, gender concordance, sibling contact, and minority status) in emerging adulthood.