Sibling Relations: The Role of Conceptual Perspective-Taking in the Ontogeny of Sibling Caregiving

STEWART, ROBERT B., and MARVIN, ROBERT S. Sibling Relations: The Role of Conceptual Perspective-Taking in the Ontogeny of Sibling Caregiving. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 13221332. The behaviors of 57 mothers, their preschool-age children, and their infants were observed using a modified strange situation to explore the older siblings' potential to act as subsidiary attachment figures. Gamelike tasks were used to assess the conceptual perspective-taking abilities of the older children. Analyses revealed that: (1) 51% of the children exhibited caregiving behaviors toward their infant siblings, (2) conceptual perspective-taking ability and caregiving behavior appear to be both structurally and functionally related (( = .86) to one another, (3) nonperspective-taking children seldom act as caregivers, and (4) mothers tended to request caregiving assistance of the older siblings only if those siblings were perspective-takers. The results are discussed in terms of developmental changes in mother-child attachment and of a family systems framework.