You need to take turns! Sibling sharing and the emergence of conscience in early childhood

Abstract

Toddlers and older siblings (M age = 49.34 months) from 145 two-parent, mother-father families (85% European American, 4.9% African American, 3.5 % Asian American, 3.2% Hispanic) participated in a longitudinal investigation when toddlers were 18, 24, and 36 months old. Sibling sharing and the older siblings’ management of the interaction was observed in a laboratory-based fishing game, and mothers and fathers reported on both the toddlers’ and older siblings’ conscience (affective discomfort, moral regulation) at each timepoint. There were significant increases in both siblings’ sharing and older siblings’ management from 18 to 24 months, whereas toddlers’ sharing increased and older siblings’ management decreased from 24 to 36 months. There were stable individual differences in toddlers’ and older siblings’ sharing, and older siblings’ management from 18 to 24 months, but not from 24 to 36 months, suggesting changes in the development of sibling sharing during the second and third years when toddlers become more autonomous contributors to the sharing dynamic and older siblings can step back from managing turn-taking. Reciprocity between older siblings’ and toddlers’ sharing was evident within each time point, but little evidence of bidirectional influence over time. Moral regulation and affective discomfort were highly stable from 18 to 36 months for both siblings, but only the older siblings’ moral regulation at 18 months predicted their sharing at 24 months. Results support a constructivist-interactionist perspective of moral development by showing that sharing develops gradually over time through a set progressive social interactions with a sibling.