Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 1,366), we examine how major life course statuses are related to sibling relationships during emerging adulthood with attention to similarities and differences in these statuses between sibling dyads. We find that full-time employment, marriage/cohabitation, and parenthood are related to more distant sibling relationships, whereas college education is related to closer sibling relationships. Similarities in employment between the siblings are related to closer relationships, but differences in education, marriage/cohabitation, and parenthood are related to closer relationships, in that respondents report more help-seeking and emotional closeness with their siblings who have higher education than theirs; unpartnered respondents report more calls and fewer fights with their partnered siblings; and childless respondents report more visits and emotional closeness with their parenting siblings. Examining both one’s and one’s sibling’s life course statuses is important in understanding life course variations in sibling relationships.
AquilinoW. S. (1997). From adolescent to young adult: A prospective study of parent-child relations during the transition to adulthood. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59(3), 670–686.
3.
ArnettJ. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480.
4.
BucxF.van WelF.KnijnT. (2012). Life course status and exchanges of support between young adults and parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(1), 101–115.
5.
BuistK.L.DekovicM.PrinzieP. (2013). Sibling relationship quality and pathology of children and adolescents: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(1), 97–106.
ChenP.ChantalaK. (2014). Guidelines for analyzing Add Health data. Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina. Retrieved on September 20, 2020 from https://doi.org/10.17615/C6BW8W.
8.
CherlinA. (2010). Demographic trends in the United States: A review of research in the 2000s. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 403–419.
9.
CongerK. J.LittleW. M. (2010). Sibling relationships during the transition to adulthood. Child Development Perspectives, 4(2), 87–94.
10.
ConnidisI. A.CampbellL. D. (1995). Closeness, confiding, and contact among siblings in middle and late adulthood. Journal of Family Issues, 16(6), 722–745.
11.
CookK.CheshireC.RiceE.NakagawaS. (2013). Social exchange theory. In DeLamaterJ.WardA. (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 61–82). Springer Netherlands.
12.
DolginK. G.LindsayK. R. (1999). Disclosure between college students and their siblings. Journal of Family Psychology, 13(3), 393–400.
13.
ElderG. H.Jr. (1998). The life course as developmental theory. Child Development, 69, 1–12.
14.
EriksenS.GerstelN. (2002). A labor of love or labor itself: Care work among adult brothers and sisters. Journal of Family Issues, 23(7), 836–856.
15.
GallagherS. K.GerstelN. (2001). Connections and constraints: The effects of children on caregiving. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(1), 265–275.
16.
GilliganM.StockerC. M.Jewsbury CongerK. (2020). Sibling relationships in Adulthood: Research findings and new frontiers. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 12, 305–320.
17.
GoodmanJ.HurwitzM.MulhernC.SmithJ. (2019). O brother, where start thou? Sibling spillovers in college enrollment (No. w26502). National Bureau of Economic Research.
18.
GoyetteK. A. (2008). College for some to college for all: Social background, occupational expectations, and educational expectations over time. Social Science Research, 37(2), 461–484.
19.
HarrisK. M.HalpernC. T.HaberstickB. C.SmolenA. (2013). The national longitudinal study of adolescent health (Add Health) sibling pairs data. Twin Research and Human Genetics, 16(1), 391–398.
20.
HomansG. C. (1974). Social behavior: Its elementary forms. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
21.
JensenA. C.WhitemanS. D.FingermanK. L. (2018). “Can’t live with or without them:” Transitions and young adults’ perceptions of sibling relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 32(3), 385.
22.
KalmijnM. (2012). Longitudinal analyses of the effects of age, marriage, and parenthood on social contacts and support. Advances in Life Course Research, 17(4), 177–190.
23.
KalmijnM.LeopoldT. (2019). Changing sibling relationships after parents’ death: The role of solidarity and kin keeping. Journal of Marriage and Family, 81(1), 99–114.
24.
KaufmanG.UhlenbergP. (1998). Effects of life course transitions on the quality of relationships between adult children and their parents. Journal of Marriage and Family, 60(4), 924–938.
25.
KreiderR. M.EllisR. (2011). Living arrangements of children: 2009 (Current Population Reports No P70-126). U.S. Census Bureau. www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p70-126.pdf
26.
LeeR. M.LiuH. T. T. (2001). Coping with intergenerational family conflict: Comparison of Asian American, Hispanic, and European American college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 48(4), 410.
27.
LindellA. K.Campione-BarrN.GreerK. B. (2014). Associations between adolescent sibling conflict and relationship quality during the transition to college. Emerging Adulthood, 2, 79–91.
28.
ManningW. (2013). Trends in cohabitation: Over twenty years of change, 1987–2010. Family profiles (pp. 13–12). National Center for Family & Marriage Research. Retrieved from http://ncfmr.bgsu.edu/pdf/familyprofiles/file130944.pdf.
29.
MathewsT. J.HamiltonB. E. (2016). Mean age of mothers is on the rise: United States, 2000–2014. NCHS data brief, no 232. National Center for Health Statistics.
30.
McHaleS. M.BissellJ.KimJ. Y. (2009). Sibling relationship, family, and genetic factors in sibling similarity in sexual risk. Journal of Family Psychology, 23(4), 562–572.
31.
MilevskyA. (2005). Compensatory patterns of sibling support in emerging adulthood: Variations in loneliness, self-esteem, depression, and life satisfaction. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 22(6), 743–755.
32.
MilevskyA.HeerwagenM. (2013). A phenomenological examination of sibling relationships in emerging adulthood. Marriage & Family Review, 49(3), 251–263.
33.
MilevskyA.SmoothK.LehM.RuppeA. (2005). Familial and contextual variables and the nature of sibling relationships in emerging adulthood. Marriage & Family Review, 37(4), 123–141.
34.
NomaguchiK.FettroM. N. (2019). Childrearing stages and work–family conflict: The role of job demands and resources. Journal of marriage and family, 81(2), 289–307.
35.
NomaguchiK.MilkieM. A. (2020). Parenthood and well-being: A decade in review. Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(1), 198–223.
36.
NomaguchiK.MilkieM.BianchiS. (2005). Time strains and psychological well-being do dual-earner mothers and fathers differ?Journal of Family Issues, 26(6), 756–792.
37.
ScharfM.ShulmanS.Avigad-SpitzL. (2005). Sibling relationships in emerging adulthood and in adolescence. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20(1), 64–90.
38.
SchiemanS.GlavinP. (2011). Education and work-family conflict: Explanations, contingencies and mental health consequences. Social Forces, 89(4), 1341–1362.
39.
SillerA. B.TompkinsL. (2006, March). The big four: Analyzing complex sample survey data using SAS, SPSS, STATA, and SUDAAN. Proceedings of the thirty-first annual SAS® Users Group international conference, San Francisco, (pp. 26–29).
40.
SpitzeG. D.TrentK. (2018). Changes in individual sibling relationships in response to life events. Journal of Family Issues, 39(2), 503–526.
41.
SteinbachA.HankK. (2018). Full-, half-, and step-sibling relations in young and middle adulthood. Journal of Family Issues, 39(9), 2639–2658.
42.
StockerC. M.LanthierR. P.FurmanW. (1997). Sibling relationships in early adulthood. Journal of Family Psychology, 11(2), 210–221.
43.
TanskanenA. O.DanielsbackaM. (2020). Parenthood status and relationship quality between siblings. Journal of Family Studies, 26(2), 260–271.
44.
UeckerJ. E. (2012). Marriage and mental health among young adults. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 53(1), 67–83.
45.
Van VolkomM.MachizC.ReichA. E. (2011). Sibling relationships in the college years: Do gender, birth order, and age spacing matter?North American Journal of Psychology, 13(1), 35–50.
46.
VoorpostelM.van der LippeT.DykstraP. A.FlapH. (2007). Similar or different? The importance of similarities and differences for support between siblings. Journal of Family Issues, 28(8), 1026–1053.
47.
WhiteL. (2001). Sibling relationships over the life course: A panel analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(2), 555–568.
48.
WhitemanS. D.McHaleS. M.CrouterA. C. (2011). Family relationships from adolescence to early adulthood: Changes in the family system following firstborns' leaving home. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(2), 461–474.
49.
WrzusC.HänelM.WagnerJ.NeyerF. J. (2013). Social network changes and life events across the life span: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 139(1), 53–80.
