Author Interviews, Education, Social Issues / 23.06.2018
Sibling Closeness in Middle School Predicts Differences in College Graduation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Xiaoran Sun
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: College graduation has significant implications for adult life outcomes including for employment, family formation, and health (IOM & NRC, 2015).
Investigating how sibling differences in college graduation emerge sheds light on why children growing up in the same family sometimes follow diverging paths in adulthood. Our study also responds to the call by researchers interested in policy and practice to conduct longitudinal research investigating the role of early family socialization processes in educational attainment (Pettit, Davis-Kean, & Magnuson, 2009). Despite siblings’ important role in child and adolescent development, previous research has focused on parenting and on the academic outcomes of individual children in the family.
Further, although sibling experiences, including their relationship characteristics and parental differential treatment, have been linked to sibling similarities and differences in domains such as risky behaviors (Slomkowski, Rende, Novak, Lloyd-Richardson, & Raymond, 2005), to date, there has been very little research on the role of sibling experiences in positive development, such as academic achievement. (more…)
Xiaoran Sun
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: College graduation has significant implications for adult life outcomes including for employment, family formation, and health (IOM & NRC, 2015).
Investigating how sibling differences in college graduation emerge sheds light on why children growing up in the same family sometimes follow diverging paths in adulthood. Our study also responds to the call by researchers interested in policy and practice to conduct longitudinal research investigating the role of early family socialization processes in educational attainment (Pettit, Davis-Kean, & Magnuson, 2009). Despite siblings’ important role in child and adolescent development, previous research has focused on parenting and on the academic outcomes of individual children in the family.
Further, although sibling experiences, including their relationship characteristics and parental differential treatment, have been linked to sibling similarities and differences in domains such as risky behaviors (Slomkowski, Rende, Novak, Lloyd-Richardson, & Raymond, 2005), to date, there has been very little research on the role of sibling experiences in positive development, such as academic achievement. (more…)