The Relationship of Sibling Caretaking and Attentiveness to a Peer Tutor 1

Abstract

Ethnographic measures of sibling caretaking were correlated with attentiveness to a peer tutor. Boys from families who assigned childcare tasks to male siblings were more likely to be attentive in a dyadic peer-tutoring session. General classroom attentiveness was also highly correlated with attentiveness to a peer tutor and to male sibcare. Girl tutee attentiveness and female sibcare were not correlated. Families who assign major childcare tasks to boys apparently foster behaviors that generalize to the classroom. The transfer may not be specific from sibling interaction experiences to peer tutoring situations since family reliance on sibcare also correlated with generalized classroom attentiveness, and general (nonsibcare) chore demands