ABSTRACT
Sibling relationships are central in the lives of children and adolescents around the world. Analyses by sociologists and demographers have shown that, despite dramatic declines in family size in the USA over the past century, only about 16 percent of middle childhood-aged children in the mid-1990s lived in a home without a sibling (Hernandez, 1997). Developmental researchers, in turn, have highlighted siblings' roles as companions, confidantes, and role models from childhood through adolescence (Dunn, 1998).
