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Sibling Conflict

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Sibling rivalry

Definition

Competition and animosity among siblings.

Introduction

Sibling relationships in humans are often marked by feelings of love as well as hate for each other, providing a quintessential example of ambivalent relationships. In fact, relative to other types of familial violence (e.g., spousal and parent–child violence), sibling violence is the most common form of nonlethal familial violence (Wiehe 1997). Although this conflict and animosity between siblings can be quite intense at times, it is typically considered to be a normal part of development (Cicirelli 1995). As such, sibling conflict has been linked to both potential benefits and costs in terms of psychosocial and cognitive development. For example, potential benefits identified include the development of greater empathy and perspective taking (Dunn and Brown 1994) as well as practice with social negotiation leading to greater conflict resolution and problem-solving abilities (Campione-Barr and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of Redlands, 1200 E. Colton Avenue, Redlands, CA, 92373, USA

    Jessica Hehman

Authors
  1. Jessica Hehman
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Correspondence to Jessica Hehman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Hehman, J. (2016). Sibling Conflict. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3040-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3040-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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