Temperament and sibling relationships: The mediating effect of social competence and behavior

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 41; no. 9; pp. 6147 - 6153
• Main Authors: Qian, Guoying, Chen, Xin, Jiang, Suo, Guo, Xianmei, Tian, Li, Dou, Gang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Children & youth; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Emotions; Families & family life; Kindergarten; Preschool children; Preschool education; Psychological aspects; Psychological research; Psychology; Siblings; Social Sciences; Social skills; Temperament; China; Second-born preschool children; Social competence and behavior; Temperament; First-born preschool children; Sibling relationships
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-01080-w

We investigated sibling relationships, temperament, and social competence and behavior of first-born and second-born children in China. A total of 212 Chinese children ( M  = 4.52, SD  = .88) completed Sibling Relationships Scale, Temperament Scale, and Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale. The results indicated that (1) for the first-born children, temperament subscales were positively related to their social competence and behavior, but had nothing to do with their sibling relationships, and children’s sibling relationships were not significantly associated with their social competence and behavior; (2) for the second-born children, there was a fully mediating effect of implicit behavioral problems and explicit behavioral problems between emotionality of temperament and sibling warmth. The implications of the study were discussed.