Peculiarities of the adult sibling image

Abstract

Relationships between adult siblings, their peculiarities and diversity are analyzed. A brief summary of modern foreign studies in this area is given. 208 adults who have at least one sibling took part in the empirical study. Four types of sibling relationships are identified and described: 1) close and non-conflict (33% of the sample), 2) moderately close and moderately conflict (38%) indifferent (19%), distant and conflict-competitive (7%). Peculiarities of the adult sibling image characteristic of each type of relationship are examined. It is established that in case of close and warm relations with a sibling, he or she is perceived significantly more positively (as a cleverer, more attentive, more organized person) than in case of conflict, indifferent or (especially) hostile relations. To gain a better understanding of the peculiarities of sibling relationships they were compared to those of friend relationships. This comparison shows that the image of a friend is usually more positive than the image of a sibling, however about half of the respondents believe that they are more similar to a sibling than to a friend.