Family Siblingship Articles

A key change in the evolution of our species from a common ancestor with the chimpanzees was the shift to a field of social interaction no longer dependent upon face-to-face interaction for the maintenance of social coherency. Our hunter-gatherers ancestors made a radical shift to social relations based on a culturally constructed system of kinship relations. Unlike biological kinship that reflects the facts of biological reproduction, cultural kinship is a constructed, computational system that enables symbolic computation of kinship relations that are expressed through the kin terms of a kinship terminology. The system of kin terms is analogous to arithmetic as a computational system for computing quantities with symbols instantiated by the counting numbers. The internal logic of a kinship terminology ensures consistency both in kinship relation computations and translation of kin term computations to the perspective of each person who culturally shares the same kinship terminology. The constraint of internal and external consistency does not lead to a single kinship terminology computational system, hence there are a variety of kinship terminology systems across human societies. In this paper I outline a theory for the generative structure of kinship terminology systems and briefly discuss the implications this for explaining structural differences between kinship terminologies and how structure relates to social organization.

Siblings who have suffered severe trauma and disrupted attachment relate to one another in ways that interfere with individual development, the chance to benefit from connections with adults, the establishment of healthy sibling relationships, and the working through of traumatic experiences. The authors use case examples to illustrate four distinct sibling patterns: “absent, adult lockout, half and half, and trauma shield.” The authors highlight the importance of recognizing these types and then varying the therapist's treatment stance to pursue five goals. These include suspending problematic sibling relationships to create room for bonding with caring adults, transferring attachment behaviors and impulses to a receptive adult, resuming healthy individual development, forming more adaptive sibling connections, and expressing shared traumatic content.

Despite extensive research regarding adult daughters' experiences as caregivers to aging parents, little attention has been paid to how adult daughters anticipate future caregiving roles. The current study examines the impact of sibling networks on the caregiving anticipation of 103 adult daughters. Factors influencing the expectation and amount of support adult daughters anticipate include daughters' birth order and proximity to their mothers. Characteristics of the sibling networks, including percentage of sisters within the family, are also important to care anticipation.

Utilizing longitudinal, 3-wave data collected from multiple informants (fathers, mothers, and target children) in 374 families, the potential effects of sibling relationships on adolescent development across early and middle adolescence were investigated. Adolescents who perceived their sibling relationships more positively at Time 1 tended to have better friendships and higher self-esteem at Time 2, which, in turn, were associated with less loneliness, less depression, and fewer delinquent behaviors and less substance use at Time 3. Moreover, a bidirectional relationship was found between adolescent self-esteem and the quality of their sibling relationships, suggesting that a more positive sibling relationship helps to enhance adolescent self-esteem, and that higher adolescent self-esteem predicts a more positive sibling relationship. A bidirectional relationship was also found between adolescent sibling relationships and adolescent friendships. However, a much stronger association between adolescent sibling relationships at Time 1 and adolescent friendships at Time 2, than between adolescent friendships at Time 1 and adolescent sibling relationships at Time 2, may suggest that the quality of an earlier sibling relationship is more predictive of the quality of a later friendship for adolescents rather than the other way around.

Comparative studies of the health, well-being, and social functioning of adolescents and youths have, in the past two decades, been focused on young people in developing countries where rapid social, cultural, and economic changes have been associated with dramatic increases in the rates of social problems indicative of poorer mental health. Young people in many Pacific Island societies suffer from some of the highest rates of social problems like suicide and substance abuse in the world. It is generally agreed that the increases in rates of social problems among youths in this region result from increases in psychosocial stress, anger, and frustration surrounding intergenerational conflict within the family. Much less is known about the aspects of everyday experiences of young people in the Pacific that can lead to psychosocial stress and the angry episodes of interpersonal conflict that often precede suicide attempts and binge drinking. This paper examines 40 cases of interpersonal conflict in young men's and women's experiences in the islands of Chuuk of the Federated States of Micronesia to better understand what can lead to elevated levels of psychosocial stress for youths in the Pacific. This study shows that the emotional crises of young people in Chuuk often emerge from the incongruence in their pursuit of valued personal and social identities within the family, the community, and the peer group. Thus youths who experience more incongruity in their engagements across the multiple activity settings of everyday life are at greater risk for stressful experiences.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of culture on contributory behaviors within the context of family, friends, and neighbors among the oldest old in the United States and in China. The study was conducted in suburban areas of Boston in 1996 (=465), and later in 1999 a replication of the study was conducted by Chinese researchers in urban areas of Shanghai, China (=539). This study found some common factors such as objective measure of health status, assistance received from others, and group affiliation. However, many differences emerged in the study. The range of contributory behaviors toward friends is quite different between the two samples. Some of the correlates’ impact is also culturally specific, such as sibling support. These differences reflect variation in respondents’ social support as well as social structural differences. Findings from this study suggest that providing more opportunities for elders to participate in groups would facilitate their participation in volunteer activities and improve their overall well-being.

In order to investigate the significance of adults’ relationship to their parents, this relationship is compared to relationships with siblings, friends, partners, and children. German adults ( = 902) between the ages of 20 and 86 completed the Network of Relationships Inventory (Furman and Buhrmester ). Participants felt most supported by their partners, followed by their children, mothers, friends, fathers, and siblings. Conflicts were more frequently found within the family (especially with the partner, followed by children, mothers, fathers, and siblings) than with friends. Except for partner relationships, both conflict and support decreased with age. Concerning relative power within their relationships, partners, mothers, and siblings are seen as equals, friends and especially fathers are perceived as more powerful, and children as less, yet increasingly powerful. Regarding all relationship types and relationship qualities, the differences between women and men were small.

The X-STRs are important tools in forensic application, particularly in complex cases of kinship testing. In deficiency paternity testing when alleged father cannot be typed, investigation of X-STR markers yields the desired information. Blood samples were collected from unrelated individual (118 females and 94 males) and 84 trios families (father, mother and daughter). DNA extraction from whole blood was performed with Phenol chloroform method. Five X-linked STR markers DXS6800, DXS7133, DXS6797, DXS981 and GATA165B12 were selected. The amplicons were analyzed through ABI 3100 Genetic Analyzer. Pentaplex PCR system was developed for multilocus amplification at the same time. For each locus 4–9 alleles were noted. Altogether, 32 alleles were observed from five markers. Eighty-four trios families were analysed to check the mutation rate and no mutation was observed. Stutter peaks were observed maximum at locus DXS6797 (12.44%) while the minimum at locus DXS7133 (4.5%). For sensitivity study, amplification of X chromosomal short tandem repeats loci was successfully performed using 0.15 ng quantity of DNA as template. In conclusion; this pentaplex represents a convenient method to study X chromosome markers. It works with reasonable amounts of DNA and is suitable for paternity cases.

Black women have an increased risk of placental abruption compared to White women, even when controlling for known coexisting risk factors. This risk increase is greatest at the earliest preterm gestational ages when outcomes are the poorest. The relative contribution of placental abruption to term births was greater in Black women, whereas the relative contribution of placental abruption to preterm birth was greater in White women.

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