Cross-cultural differences in sibling power balance and its concomitants across three age periods

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We examined cross-cultural differences in (1) sibling power balance and (2) theassociations between sibling power balance and internalizing and externalizingproblems in three separate cross-cultural studies (early childhood, late child-hood, and adolescence). The early childhood samples consisted of 123 Turkishand 128 Dutch mothers (mean age for children was 4.9 years). In the late child-hood samples, self-report data were collected from 124 Indian and 129 Dutchchildren (mean age 10.9 years). In the adolescent samples self-report data werecollected from 165 ethnic Moroccan and 165 ethnic Dutch adolescents (meanage 15.2 years). In all studies, questionnaire data on sibling power imbalanceand internalizing and externalizing problems were collected. Results showedonly one significant cross-cultural difference in sibling power imbalance: TheIndian sample reported more sibling power imbalance than the Dutch. Linksbetween sibling power imbalance and problem behavior were highly similarbetween the different cultural samples. The only significant difference was astronger impact of sibling power imbalance on externalizing problems for theDutch compared to the Turkish sample. Concluding, few cross-cultural differ-ences were found in sibling power imbalance. Across cultures and age groups,more sibling power imbalance was linked to more internalizing and externaliz-ing problems.