PREDICTING NORMATIVE AND PROBLEMATIC FAMILY PATHWAYS TO THE TRANSITION TO SIBLINGHOOD: COMMENTARY ON VOLLING ET AL.'S MONOGRAPH.

Abstract

Volling et al.'s monograph provides a rich, thoughtful, and rigorous account of how the transition to siblinghood is experienced by the first-born child and the family. In their comprehensive longitudinal study, they followed 241 families from the prenatal period before the second-born's birth until this child was 12-months old. Siblings are a critical, but understudied, relationship in children's development; the challenges posed in researching sibling dynamics in the context of the family are discussed. Prior psychodynamic and developmental research literature is critiqued, which places the current study into perspective and indicates the important theoretical frameworks (i.e., developmental psychopathology and developmental ecological systems) employed by Volling et al. to advance our understanding of this critical transition in the life of the family. The longitudinal study design, sample characteristics, identification of possible trajectories of adjustment (or not) to the birth of the sibling, and selection of family and child variables are addressed. The sophisticated statistical methods (Growth Mixture Modeling and data mining procedures) employed to predict child adjustment in association with parenting variables over time and sibling relationship quality at 12 months identified low- and high-risk trajectories on the seven subscales of the Child Behavior Check List (CBCL). This afforded a nuanced investigation of a variety of potentially problematic child behaviors (e.g., aggression, withdrawal, negative emotionality, somatic problems) in association with parenting behaviors. A final discussion included study limitations, significant strengths, and implications for clinicians and other professionals. The study's conclusion is that most children and families are resilient, take the birth of a sibling in their stride, and do not exhibit empirical evidence of a developmental crisis, as argued by earlier psychodynamic authors.