Whether you're best friends or can't
be in the same room without arguing, there's no question that you and your
sibling(s) share a lifelong bond. People come and go, but your siblings
are there through it all. By age eleven, most children have spent a
third of their existence siblings. So
it makes sense, that your siblings help mold the person you
become. Below, are six ways they may influence you:
1.
Siblings are
your earliest teachers: Siblings help each other learn how
to navigate social situations. They provide daily practice in understanding
the minds of others. Strong sibling bonds have
been found to help kids successfully connect
with their peers at school. And having a
brother or sister of the opposite sex could even give you a boost
in the dating world.
College students who had an opposite-sex sibling found it
easier to make conversation with potential romantic partners. If you
are a girl with an older brother or a boy with an older sister, you should
thank them for
whatever romantic success you've had.
Having a kind-hearted brother or sister could help your brain.
A 2014 study of three hundred and eighty-five preschoolers
found that children in bigger families generally had lower vocabulary test
scores (possibly because parents had less time to devote to each child).
The gap was erased for those kids lucky enough to have cognitively
sensitive older siblings.
2.
Siblings can
cause depression: While it's natural for siblings to squabble, what you fought
over could have major health implications. A 2012 study discovered
that siblings who typically quarreled about issues of equality
or fairness experienced higher
levels of depression a year later; while siblings who fought over personal space
had a greater risk of developing anxiety or low self-esteem.
Although this study focused on adolescents between ages
twelve and fifteen, other research suggests that a troubled sibling
relationship might have repercussions well into adulthood. Sibling
conflict during childhood was found to increase the occurrence of
major depression and use
of mood-altering drugs in adults as
old as 50.
A study observed two hundred and twenty-nine men over a thirty
year period. It started when they were twenty. The study rated their
sibling relationships based on how close they were (or weren't), and how
much rivalry and conflict there was.
At the beginning of the study, all of the men were
considered to be in excellent mental health. By the time they were fifty,
participants who'd had distant (or destructive) relationships with
siblings when they were younger were significantly more likely to be depressed.
Researchers found that this was the case whether or not the men had a
family history of depression.
3.
Siblings
can boost your happiness: It shouldn't come
as a surprise that having a warm, conflict-free relationship
with your siblings is a very good thing. Close sibling
connections are frequently associated with lower levels
of loneliness and depression, and higher levels of self-esteem. In infancy,
siblings turn to older siblings for comfort during times of stress.
As they grow up,
those bonds are crucial for helping siblings navigate through difficult life events like the shared ones of illness or death of a parent. There is a
correlation between participants who said they had a
happy relationship with their siblings
and overall satisfaction with life.
4.
Siblings
can influence your weight: While
it's well known that obesity can run in families, siblings
can play an important role when it comes to your waistline. In
families in where the older child was obese, the younger child
had a fivefold greater
chance of also being obese (regardless
of whether the parents were obese).
Younger siblings often tend to model their diet and
lifestyle after older siblings. Kids who get a younger sibling before they reach
first grade are less likely to become obese later on. This is because children
with a younger sibling may
be more physically active.
5.
Siblings could
save your marriage: Believe it or not, being part of a
big family may make you less likely to get divorced. A 2013 study of
57,000 Americans over a forty year period showed that for every sibling a
person had their chances
of getting a divorce decreased by 2%.
Having more siblings’ means more experience dealing with
others, and that seems to provide additional help in dealing with a marriage
relationship as an adult.
6.
Siblings shape
your character: Birth order affects personality.
There is evidence that you and your sibling may shape each other. Much
has been written about de-identification, when two siblings (usually close
in age) either consciously or unconsciously creates
separate identities for themselves.
Through this process, siblings are thought to develop
distinct attributes, and engage in different activities and behaviors in order
to establish their unique
identities within the family. For
example, if your sister was a track star, you might have
focused on academics.
If your brother was quiet and shy, maybe you made
an effort to be more outgoing. De-identification is more common in families
with two children. In families
with three children, it's more likely to occur among same-sex siblings rather
than opposite-sex siblings.
""The greatest gift our parents ever gave us was each other."
(www.yourtribute.com)[i]
[i] Adapted from: “6 Ways Your Siblings Make
You Who You Are” by Kathleen Mulpeter
Inspired
by the October 2017 series on the Today Show called “Sisterhood”
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