ABSTRACT
This chapter considers whether family life and hence, by implication, sibling relationships have been transformed by societal and technological changes over the 40 years since Dunn's seminal observational work. Studies of historical shifts in parent behaviour indicate that relatively short periods of time can produce observable changes in parent–child interactions. More recently several studies have examined whether one-child families differ from multiple-child families in the extent to which they enjoy social support from close personal relationships with other family members. Falling fertility rates have, alongside the rapid increase in more diverse family forms (e.g., same-sex parent families) resulted in growing demand for gamete donation as a means of starting a family. Delayed parenthood has led to falling fertility rates and a rapidly rising number of children conceived through gamete donation; follow-up studies reveal that these children are at least as interested in finding their donor siblings as in finding their donor parent.
