Jealousy Expression and Communication Satisfaction in Adult Sibling Relationships

Though sibling rivalry and jealousy is a prevalent research area in psychology and family studies, few scholars have explored how adult siblings expressed jealousy and how satisfied they were with their jealousy expression. To link the research areas of developmental and social psychology with family communication, the present study employed communication satisfaction and Guerrero, Andersen, Jorgensen, Spitzberg, and Eloy's (1995) communicative responses to jealousy in the context of adult sibling relationships. The current findings revealed that avoidance/denial was the most frequently reported form of jealousy expression by adult siblings. In addition, avoidance/denial, distributive communication, and violence were negatively related to communication satisfaction, whereas integrative communication was positively related to communication satisfaction. Each finding is discussed in relation to sibling interaction patterns.