Sibling socialization: the effects of stressful life events and experiences.

Stressful life events and experiences may disrupt the typical day-to-day interactions between sisters and brothers that provide the foundation of sibling socialization. This chapter examines four experiences that may affect patterns of sibling interaction: parental marital conflict, parental divorce and remarriage, foster care placement, and a sibling's developmental disability. We propose a model to guide future research on sibling socialization in distressed families and special populations in which qualities of the sibling relationship moderate the effects of stressful life experiences on child and family adjustment.