Sibling Relationships of Preschool-Aged Children in Gross Motor Environments

This research describes the behaviors and interactions of preschool-aged siblings in two conditions: object-oriented and body-oriented. The hypothesis was that a child's social network, and more specifically, the child's siblings significantly influence motor skill development. Thirty-five pairs of same-sex (n = 20), and mixed-sex (n = 15) siblings individually performed motor tasks for seven minutes in each condition, and a Sony video camera recorded all behaviors. Two major categories of sibling behaviors and interactions—moving (five items) and observing (four items)—were coded using standard procedures from social-developmental psychology (Lamb, Suomi, & Stephenson, 1979). Item frequencies were analyzed using a four-factor (sex composition × sex of older child × age × condition) mixed analysis of variance procedure with age interval as a covariate. Two of the major findings for the movement items were (1) in the body-oriented condition, the older siblings usually initiated task performance while the younger siblings watched them, and (2) in the object-oriented condition, the older siblings repeated or practiced the same task more frequently than their younger siblings. Another major finding was that the four-factor interaction was significant for the modeling item. The younger children imitated the specific body-oriented movements of their older siblings in 18% of the time intervals, and this behavior was seldom exhibited by the older children. In addition, the younger males in the mixed-sex dyads imitated their older siblings twice as often as the younger siblings in the other sex groups. In conclusion, this study provided information about preschool-aged sibling relationships in two different gross motor environments.