Siblings and the Development of Prosocial Behaviour

Abstract

The frequency of sharing, helping, comforting and cooperative behaviour shown by young siblings towards one another, their response to the other child's distress, and the relation between this prosocial behaviour and conflict behaviour was studied in 43 2-child families observed at home when the second child was 18 and 24 months old. By 18 months children were capable of sharing/helping/comforting, but apparently rarely motivated to respond in this way; in contrast cooperative behaviour was frequently shown. Conciliation, teasing and cooperative behaviour was more frequently shown by 2-year-olds whose siblings had previously been cooperative, and similarly conciliation and distraction was most frequently shown by older siblings whose younger siblings had shown cooperative behaviour 6 months previously. Sibling constellation variables did not account for individual differences in prosocial behaviour.