**5. Tentative conclusions and future directions**

Substantively, parental relationships and sibling relationships are interconnected by which involve variables that may evoke proximal risk factors, therefore, may underlie considerable moderators of heterogeneity in symptoms of subsequent maladaptive behaviour affecting the child's social and interpersonal functioning. Looking close across developmental and behavioural research, this chapter suggests that CU behaviours may be moderated through the intersubjectivity in parent-child and sibling-sibling interactions. Corresponding to Bandura's social learning theory (SLT), there are two specific processes to explain parental and siblings' reciprocal behaviours: verbal instruction and modelling [63]. Noting that the reciprocal social learning processes embedded in parental and sibling relationships have not been investigated extensively, fragmented psychological and social evidence leading to child adjustment across the literature are consistent with how Bandura states that 'internal personal factors and behavior … operate as reciprocal determinants … [as] people's expectations influence how they behave and the outcomes of their behavior change their expectations' ([63], p.195). Hence, this chapter suggests further empirical work to investigate the roles of *interaction* and *communication* in parent-child and sibling relations as key mechanisms for developing CU behaviours during childhood underlying *child's susceptibility* in defining the quality of the child's social and emotional learning experiences.

*Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

parent-child interaction [30, 38].

sibling relationship [17–29, 31, 32, 36].

sibling position [21].

**3.4 Sibling structural features: age, gender and family size**

partially depends on sibling structure, however, the overall effectiveness of these interventions is closely related to the quality of parental time and attention during

In this context, it is essential that the quality of parental management strategies conveys fairness and equality in the parent-child interactions [15]. The magnitude of parent-child interaction can underlie parental differential treatment among siblings [15, 48–50]. Research strongly emphasised the link between parental differential treatment, child temperament and the quality of sibling relationships [33, 48, 49]. From a developmental perspective, children's perceptions of the warmth and intimacy of their sibling relationship is strongly associated with sibling disclosure and emotional understanding [30, 35]. Hobson and Manke found that older siblings reported less warmth and closeness and a higher level of conflict within sibling relationships under conditions of less perceived fairness [33]. Dunn et al. suggested that parental time and attention is closely related to family's social-economic status and the parent's psychosocial factors, and in turn, this association has shown effect on the level of closeness, warmth and intimacy among sibling [27, 28]. Hence, syntheses of research indicate direct and indirect influences of environmental factors related to child's perceptions and beliefs towards the parent-child interactions and the quality of the

A noteworthy feature indicated through observational studies in sibling relationships is the reciprocity of positive and negative interactions between siblings [34]. Reciprocity is defined as the link between behaviour frequencies of older and younger siblings [34]. Longitudinal research following children from preschool, middle childhood to early adolescence emphasised the change of child adjustment (i.e. internalising and externalising problems) in sibling relationships [27, 28, 52]. The influence of the family interactional system on the child's characteristics and behaviour and cognitive development is well documented [17–28, 31, 32, 37]. According to Cicirelli, the attention and responsiveness between subsystems in the home is held to be dependent on sibling structural features (i.e. age and age gaps between siblings, number of siblings and the gender composition of siblings) to the extent that cultural norms and family values prescribe certain roles for a given

Bigner and Cicirelli suggested that children's perceptions of sibling power and function depended on sibling structure features [20, 58]. Cicirelli (1967–1978) emphasised on the efficiency of the educative aspect and problem-solving behaviour through the family communication and interaction pattern in sibling structure [17–22]. Most studies conducted by Cicirelli (1967–1993) indicated that older sisters were more effective teachers of younger siblings than were older brothers [17–25]. The importance of this finding implies three significant inferences: (a) the direct and indirect dyadic impacts of the mother-child relationship on child adjustment within sibling-sibling interactions; (b) the degree of reliability and responsibility given to older sisters and (c) there is a link between positive and effective motherchild interactions and the sibling structure (the gender of the older sibling) [17–26].

Taken together the appraisal of research into child development, behaviour and sibling relations, syntheses of the accumulative research correspond with literature

Family size showed no effect in the family interactional system [17–22].

**24**

**4. Discussion**

#### *Parenting - Studies by an Ecocultural and Transactional Perspective*

A further conjecture suggests the power of resiliency embedded in the parentchild and sibling bond by corresponding to Deater-Deckard et al., defining resilience in childhood as 'typical development in the face of adverse circumstances that propel others to deleterious outcomes … genes and environments work together in promoting optimal development under nonoptimal conditions' ([64], p. 49). This conceptual implication of resiliency underlies the notion of adaptability to adversity in parent-child and sibling relations evident across the literature. Pointing out that Rutter emphasised on the risk and protective *mechanisms* and *processes* in the developmental process of resiliency rather than identifying risk and protective factors [64, 65], it is therefore apposite to further investigate the developmental nature of 'resiliency' conveyed through intersubjective social and emotional competence in the parent-child-siblings' network.
