ABSTRACT
The cultural context surrounding both the transition to siblinghood and parent–child interactions has changed dramatically over the past half century. This chapter outlines the factors that predict the individual differences in young children's experiences and reactions to becoming a sibling. It discusses a few of the theoretical models used to understand family transitions. One of the very first models of families experiencing stressful transitions was developed to explain how families coped with fathers being drafted into the army during the Second World War. This early model portrayed family adaptation to a stressful transition as hinging on the balance between an individual's resources and the demands of the family and community: stressful transitions impose a drain upon these resources, such that "going into the red" effectively precipitates a family crisis. Life-stage researchers offer a rather different view of transitions in which changes to an individual's biological, cognitive, affective or behavioural functions occupy centre-stage.
