Observed sibling interaction: links with the marital and the mother-child relationship

The study examines whether the link between the marital relationship and sibling interaction is direct or mediated by the mother-child relationship. Seventy-three same-sex siblings pairs aged 3 years 6 months to 8 years 6 months were observed during free play. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing marital functioning and their relationship with their 2 children. Results indicated that older siblings' negative behavior is linked with negative dimensions of the marital and the mother-child relationship, whereas younger siblings' negative behavior is linked with the mother-child and the differential mother-child relationship. Siblings; positive behavior, although linked with spacing, is not linked with positive dimensions of family interaction. Most important, the linkage between negative marital relations and older siblings; negative behavior was found to be mediated by maternal power assertion, thereby supporting the indirect model of negative family interaction.