**Abstract**

The impacts of sibling relationship quality during childhood are largely unexplored in predicting the development of internalising and externalising behaviour problems. Syntheses of research into sibling relations point out the overlapping influential factors that cause variations in sibling relationships during childhood, such as child temperament, family constellation variables and the parent-child relationship, indicating that the construct of sibling relationship quality is derived from the coherence of four trajectories: (a) sibling behaviour and interactions, (b) family emotional climate, (c) parental management and the parent's interactions with siblings and (d) sibling structural features. Noting that the impacts of childhood sibling relations on the development of personality traits are unexplored directly in the literature, this chapter has critically appraised the fragmented psychological and social patterns of personality traits across developmental, behaviour and sibling literature, highlighting the interrelationships between these trajectories to conclude a tentative theoretical conceptualisation of how parental behaviour and childhood sibling relationships affect child maladjustment outcomes related to predicting developmental personality traits. A further conjecture has been suggested that the quality of parent-child relationships and childhood sibling relationships can be a significant moderator for developmental personality traits, conceptualising risk and resiliency factors for developing callous-unemotional (CU) behaviours in the parent-child-siblings network. Future empirical research is a warranted endeavour to evaluate the tentative conclusions.

**Keywords:** sibling, child, adjustment, personality traits, callous-unemotional, development, attachment, parent-child relationship

#### **1. Introduction**

Personality traits are defined as complex, multifaceted constructs, expressed in affectively cold, interpersonally deceptive, behaviourally reckless and often overtly antisocial behaviour [1]. Personality traits have long been conceptualised as consisting of two broad facets: on the one hand, an affective-interpersonal facet encompassing such traits as lack of empathy, grandiosity and superficial charm, and on the other hand, a behavioural-lifestyle facet encompassing irresponsible, antisocial and impulsive behaviours. In behaviour research, the two facets of personality traits have shown different correlates with internalising and externalising behaviour

problems, pointing out fear, anxiety and depression as main correlates with personality traits in youth and adulthood. Fundamental research highlighted that abnormal or deficient emotional responding is considered to be the key measure for personality traits across development [2]. Empirical evidence has also indicated that the increase or decrease in personality traits across development is associated with similar changes in contextual, behavioural and individual problems [3].

From a developmental point of view, psychopathic traits can have a patent impact on individuals' development through predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating and predictive risk factors that include the characteristics of the individual (i.e. neuropsychological deficits, autonomic irregularities and temperamental traits) as well as the characteristics of the individual's social context (i.e. peer rejection, family dysfunction, neighbourhood disorganisation and family socioeconomic status) [4]. Notably, research has documented the increased prevalence of personality traits in the general population, youth in particular [5, 6]. The relevant literature identified these traits through adult measures underscored by the criteria proposed for a callous-unemotional (CU) specifier to conduct disorders in DSM-5 [7]. The evidence in research demonstrated that stability subtypes of CU behaviours in children and adolescents represent developmental precursors of adult personality traits [8–10], defining CU behaviours in children as a circumscribed facet of adult personality traits associated with a persistent pattern of behaviour that reflects lack of empathy, lack of remorse and shallow or deficient affect [10]. However, the literature specific to assess the heterogeneity of distinct aetiologies and developmental pathways to CU behaviours is sparse [11, 12]. The existing research partially explains the association of personality traits with developmental theoretical assertions, which informs our understanding of the deficits in the ability to form close interpersonal attachments over the individual's lifespan [5, 13].

Notably, recent theories point out that the affective-interpersonal facet might result from an inborn deficit, whereas the behavioural-lifestyle facet might be more under the influence of environmental risk factors like neglecting or abusive parenting [14]. Whereas such theorising remains somewhat speculative and is in need of rigorous empirical testing, there is a preliminary evidence in support of a differential aetiology underlying the affective-interpersonal and behaviourallifestyle facets. Bowlby's theory of parent-child attachment paved the way for scientific studies to explore the significant implications of the early disruptions in attachment relationships to explain affectionless traits [12]. For theoretical and empirical purposes, attachment approaches suggest that attachment disorganisation is a potential marker of vulnerability to later mental health disorders, and the construction of the attachment framework is commonly used to assess underlying interpersonal mechanisms through developmental trajectories that can predict the development of personality traits. Across developmental and behaviour research, Fearon et al. conducted a meta-analysis to examine the significance of how insecure and disorganised attachments increase the risk for externalising problems [15]. Critically, evidence depicted that CU behaviours are not immediately related to avoidant attachment representations; nevertheless, insecure attachment representations evoke conduct problems that show a robust association with CU behaviours [12, 13, 15]. Accumulative research has identified that deficits in fear recognition and dysfunction of empathy processing are particularly prevalent with research utilising measures of CU behaviour [16]. Relevant longitudinal studies have contributed to emphasise the influence of the reciprocal process between the parent and child to imply the predictive impact that delineates individuals' chances to positive or negative consequences [14].

Relatedly, research has demonstrated that quality of sibling relationships are correlated with individual's personality development and psychosocial adjustment,

**21**

years of childhood [43].

*Parenting and Sibling Relations in Predicting the Development of Personality Traits*

including the development of interpersonal and social skills, language skills, skills in conflict management and resolution throughout the entire lifespan [17–32]. Sibling relations are conceptualised as the children's first social networking experience with relatively same-age individuals, and therefore, can serve as the base of building ideas about their own abilities and self-worth through modelling and learning new skills or behaviour from one another [33]. Sibling relationships are defined in literature as ranging from being close and harmonious to distant and conflicted [34]. The quality of sibling relationships encompasses coherent structures related to sibling social support, overall relationship satisfaction, closeness, the degree of reliability and responsibility to which the sibling serves as a role model [17–37]. In light of the evidence across developmental and behaviour literature, it is therefore essential to track the dynamics unfolding reciprocal interactions with the family unit, including parent-child and sibling-sibling dynamics, in order to interpret multidimensional disorganised or disoriented behaviours as indicators of collapsed behavioural strategies

Simultaneously, given that the reciprocal impacts of sibling relationships during

Affect regulation is defined as the process of initiating, sustaining, modulating or changing the occurrence, intensity or duration of internal feeling states and emotion-related physiological processes [38]. Simpson and Belsky suggested that emotion regulation strategies are evolutionary adaptive as they guide the child's capacity to cope with various rearing environments [39]. In attachment infancy studies, a large amount of existing interdisciplinary data suggested that attachment communications are critical to the development of structural right brain neurobiological system, encompassing processes of emotion, stress modulation, self-regulation and thereby the functional origins of the bodily based implicit self [40]. In this context, the theoretical implications of cognitive antecedents and correlates of emotions in affect regulation are highly interrelated [40, 41]. Adding, the central role of affect regulation in child development corresponds with the developmental and neurobiological notions of differential susceptibility [40]. Hence, Schore and Schore proposed a profoundly developmental approach conceptualising the *Regulation Theory* as an amalgam of Bowlby's attachment theory, updated internal object relations theories, self-psychology and contemporary relational theory [40]. This notion takes into regard the individual's subjective trajectory of emotional growth as well as contextual influences, including differences in family dynamics and cultural variations [40, 42]. Notably, the developmental pathway in middle and late childhood years underlie the expanding roles of family, social community and other environmental factors [42, 43]. Children at this age group enter the 'age of reason' by developing their own identity through processes of more flexible thinking, self-awareness and identifying and understanding others' feelings or emotional states [43]. Nevertheless, little attention has been given to assessing regulation during the middle and late

childhood are unexplored in research related to personality traits, this chapter suggests to appraise the theoretical and empirical trajectories of regulation and child emotional functioning within the wider sphere of parent-child relationships and sibling relationships, highlighting syntheses of sibling research indicating the developmental trajectories of child adjustment within constructs of sibling behaviour and interactions, family emotional climate, parental management and the parent's

interactions with siblings and sibling structural features.

**2. Regulation, attachment and child emotional functioning**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93486*

across development.

#### *Parenting and Sibling Relations in Predicting the Development of Personality Traits DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93486*

including the development of interpersonal and social skills, language skills, skills in conflict management and resolution throughout the entire lifespan [17–32]. Sibling relations are conceptualised as the children's first social networking experience with relatively same-age individuals, and therefore, can serve as the base of building ideas about their own abilities and self-worth through modelling and learning new skills or behaviour from one another [33]. Sibling relationships are defined in literature as ranging from being close and harmonious to distant and conflicted [34]. The quality of sibling relationships encompasses coherent structures related to sibling social support, overall relationship satisfaction, closeness, the degree of reliability and responsibility to which the sibling serves as a role model [17–37]. In light of the evidence across developmental and behaviour literature, it is therefore essential to track the dynamics unfolding reciprocal interactions with the family unit, including parent-child and sibling-sibling dynamics, in order to interpret multidimensional disorganised or disoriented behaviours as indicators of collapsed behavioural strategies across development.

Simultaneously, given that the reciprocal impacts of sibling relationships during childhood are unexplored in research related to personality traits, this chapter suggests to appraise the theoretical and empirical trajectories of regulation and child emotional functioning within the wider sphere of parent-child relationships and sibling relationships, highlighting syntheses of sibling research indicating the developmental trajectories of child adjustment within constructs of sibling behaviour and interactions, family emotional climate, parental management and the parent's interactions with siblings and sibling structural features.
