Sibling interactions of hyperactive and normal children and their relationship to reports of maternal stress and self‐esteem¹

Forty‐six hyperactive and normal boys were observed while interacting with their siblings in an unstructured play and mother‐supervised task situation. Few behavioral differences were noted between identified hyperactive children and their reportedly non‐problem siblings with both showing equally high rates of negative behavior. Relative to normal siblings, hyperactive sibling dyads showed significantly higher levels of conflict. Negative behavior in the hyperactive‐child/sibling interaction was unrelated to either the sex or ordinal position (younger versus older) of the sibling. However, hyperactive sibling dyads which included a young hyperactive child showed more negative behavior during the supervised‐task situation relative to hyperactive sibling dyads which included an older hyperactive child. Maternal reports of stress and parenting self‐esteem were related to the hyperactive‐child/sibling interaction. The mothers of hyperactive siblings who interacted more during play reported higher levels of parenting self‐esteem and lower levels of stress related to both their child and themselves. During the supervised‐task situation, negative behavior in the hyperactive child dyad was highly correlated with mothers' reports of child‐related stress. These findings are discussed in terms of the need to develop intervention programs that focus on the management of sibling relationships rather than individual children, and for research examining possible continuities between the sibling and peer relationship difficulties experienced by hyperactive children. Notes 1This research was supported by grants from Health and Welfare Canada and the Alberta Mental Health Research Fund to E.J. Mash. During the writing of this report Dr. Mash was supported by a University of Calgary Killam Resident Fellowship and Charlotte Johnston by a Sir James Lougheed Fellowship. Charlotte Johnston's current address is Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306.