Jealousy is inevitable between children and the term "sibling rivalry" is used by psychologists and child specialists when they speak of it.  Not only is jealousy a cause of sibling rivalry, but another big factor is siblings fighting for the attention and love of their mothers and  fathers.  Sibling means a brother or sister that shares two biological parents in common and half-siblings that share only one biological parent in common.  Siblings may also be identified by legal criteria as in the case of step-siblings and adoptive silbings.   Biological siblings will be the focus of discussion here.
     Nearly every parent with more than one child has experienced the frustration of sibling rivalry.  Dunn and Munn's (as cited in Perlman and Ross, 1997) study  found that sibling rivalry occurs an average of seven times per hour in families with two preschool aged children.   Sibling rivalry has a highly publicized past as we read the Bible which records the first murder, Cain killing his brother Abel.  Also the story of Joseph's brothers who were extremely envious of his "coat of many colors," threw him into a snake pit, and then sold him into slavery.   Clifford (as cited in Perlman and Ross, 1997) found that conflict between siblings is one of the most frequently reported child management problems in families.  Sibling rivarly is one of life's hardest problems to solve and some siblings will never get along harmoniously.  For more information regarding sibling rivalry see   Birth of a Sibling,   Spacing of Siblings,   Only Child, Positive/Negitive Sides of Siblings,  Other Cultures  and  Resolving Problems.  Also check out  What Parents Say which summarizes the interviews of three parents and their sibling rivalry issues.  For more helpful advice from the experts see  Parent Advice, or to help children deal with sibling issues see  Sibling Stories.  Finally, link yourself to other  web sites  and discover more information about sibling rivalry.  References  will show a list of text used for this site.   All About Me  will give some background information about myself, the creator of this web site.
 
Any questions or response to this web page can be directed to cookjt@nckcn.com

 Birth of a Sibling | Spacing of Siblings | Only Child
 Positive/Negative Sides of Siblings | Other Cultures | Resolving Problems
 What Parents Say | Parent Advice | Sibling Stories | Web Sites | References |
 All About Me