Sibling warmth as a correlate of youth self-esteem

Abstract: During adolescence, self-systems and individual perceptions of the self are changing and heavily influenced by family relationships, which are generally the first and longest lasting connections individuals experience. Thus, to understand youth development, it is imperative to investigate the family context, wherein parent-youth relationships and sibling relationships impact one another. The current study examines the effect of a close sibling relationship on youth self-esteem above and beyond the effect of the mother-youth relationship. A cross-sectional study was employed on a sample of 434 families in the US, which all consisted of one mother and at least a pair of siblings. All three members of the family participating filled in an online survey. The target youth were between the 5th to 7th grades. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses find sibling warmth as a significant predictor for youth self-perception, but not for youth self-criticism. The present study shows the importance of considering not only the mother-youth relationship when analyzing youth self-system development, but also the sibling relationship.