Siblings as Confidants: Emotional Understanding, Relationship Warmth, and Sibling Self‐Disclosure

Associations among (a) self‐disclosures between early adolescent siblings, (b) emotional understanding, and (c) relationship warmth were investigated. Grade 5–6 children (M age = 11.5 years) were interviewed concerning the incidence of disclosures to closest‐in‐age siblings (20 = older, 20 = younger), feelings regarding disclosing (or not), and sibling relationship quality. Warmth was measured with the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (Furman & Buhrmester, 1985) and emotional understanding was assessed with the Hypothetical Relationships Picture Task (adapted from Schneider, 1989, & Aquan‐Assee, 1992). Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated self‐disclosure was positively associated with feeling good about sharing and negatively associated with reports of not trusting or not receiving emotional support from their sibling. Sibling relationship warmth was a key characteristic associated with both emotional understanding and self‐disclosure; female target children demonstrated greater emotional understanding. Warmth, but not emotional understanding, was associated with self‐disclosure. Findings are discussed in light of the importance of links between affective relationships and children’s social‐emotional understanding.