Contributions of maternal Child-Rearing Rearing Practices and play contexts to sibling interactions

Abstract

Twenty-four school-aged sibling pairs were observed in their homes while watching television, playing with a construction task, and playing a popular board game. Three behaviors were operationalized and observed: teacher, manager, and helper. Instances of prosocial and agonistic behavior were also observed. The mothers of each sibling pair provided responses to selected subscales of Block's (1965) Child-Rearing Practices Report (CRPR). The results revealed several associations between maternal rearing practices and the behavior of the older siblings while playing alone with the younger siblings. Managing and helping behaviors were positively related to maternal child-rearing practices which encouraged curiosity and openness, and to the mother's value of a separate life from her children. The performance of these behaviors was negatively related to maternal inconsistency and anxiety induction. In addition, maternal use of non-punitive control techniques and mother's enjoyment of her maternal role were related respectively to less agonistic behavior and more prosocial behavior. Fewer reliable associations were found between maternal rearing practices and the behavior of younger siblings. An analysis of the influence of the play contexts revealed that the board game occasioned more managing, helping, and teching than the other play contexts. The implications of these results for the study of sibling interactions are discussed.