Perspectives on self and other in children’s representations of sibling conflict

Abstract

Seventy-six siblings (3–9 years) were individually interviewed concerning their recent conflicts. Analyses compared goals, requests, and voluntary actions attributed to self and other. Children were adept at describing both own and others’ goals, requests, and actions, and these formed coherent hierarchies in which overarching explicit goals motivated actions and requests attributed to each protagonist. Children also recognised the basic opposition between antagonists’ goals. A majority of explicitly stated goals matched those attributed by both narrators to the same sibling, an agreement rate exceeding that found for requests or actions. Older siblings also focused more on goals of others; their accounts contained more spontaneous explicit goals of others and more complex goal hierarchies for others in comparison both to their reports for self and to the reports of their younger counterparts. The discussion emphasises the development and importance of understanding others’ perspectives on interpersonal conflict.