Category: Sibling Relationship

Getting siblings to get along is oneof the most common — and most challenging —parenting goals. The children who sharea home, a family, and a childhoodtogether are also the children whofight over toys, compete for attention,irritate each other with remarkableprecision, and can make an ordinaryTuesday feel like a battle zone. The research on sibling relationshipsis…

Sibling rivalry and sibling conflictare two terms that parents often useinterchangeably — but the researchidentifies them as meaningfully differentphenomena with different causes, differentdevelopmental trajectories, and differentimplications for how parents respond. Understanding the distinction is oneof the most practically useful thingsa parent of multiple children can do —because the response that helps withone can make the…

The arrival of a new baby is one of themost significant transitions a toddlerwill face — and one that parents oftenapproach with more anxiety than necessary,or less preparation than would help. The research on toddlers and new siblingsis specific and actionable. This articlecovers what the evidence shows abouthow toddlers understand and respondto a new baby,…

Birth order is one of the most populartopics in popular psychology — and oneof the most misrepresented. The ideathat firstborns are responsible andachievement-oriented, middle childrenare overlooked and people-pleasing,and youngest children are charmingand rebellious has become so embeddedin popular culture that many peopleaccept it as established fact. The research tells a more complicatedand more honest story.…

Most parenting conversations about sibling jealousyfocus on the arrival of a new baby — the toddlerwho acts out when a newborn comes home, thepreschooler who regresses when a sibling is born.These are real and well-documented experiences. But sibling jealousy does not end when childrenoutgrow the toddler years. Research on siblingrelationships across childhood finds that jealousy,rivalry,…

If there is one parenting experience that is almost universallyshared, it is this: you are driving, you cannot stop, you cannotintervene physically, and the children in the back seat havechosen this exact moment to have an enormous argument aboutsomething completely trivial. Sibling fighting in the car is one of the most stressfulparenting experiences precisely because…

Few parenting questions generate more opinions than whetherto have a second child — and few questions are more cloudedby myth, assumption, and well-meaning but unreliable anecdote.The “only child stereotype” — lonely, spoiled, sociallyawkward, overly dependent on adults — is one of the mostpersistent in popular psychology. The research tells a very different story. This article…

Birth order is one of the most popular topics in popular psychologyand one of the most misrepresented. The idea that firstborns arenatural leaders, middle children are neglected peacemakers, andyoungest children are charming rebels has been repeated so oftenthat it feels like established fact. The actual research tells a more complicated and more interestingstory. This article…

Most parents use the terms sibling rivalry and sibling conflictinterchangeably. Developmental researchers don’t — and the distinctionmatters more than it might seem, because the two things call forgenuinely different responses. This article explains what each term actually means, what the researchsays about both, and what knowing the difference changes about how youparent through it. What…

You prepared your toddler carefully. You read the books, had the conversations,involved them in the preparations. And then the baby came home — and yourolder child fell apart anyway. This is one of the most common and most distressing experiences for new parentsof two. The good news: sibling jealousy after a new baby is not…