This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Growing up as the oldest sibling of a younger brother and sister shaped the way University of Delaware associate professor Mellissa S. Gordon learned to communicate and cope with challenges.
As a single parent, her mother often looked to Gordon to set an example, and over time, she found herself acting as a parental figure. When her siblings struggled to express frustrations or felt overwhelmed by school and friendships, they often came to her for advice, and they talked through problems together. Now, Gordon is studying this sibling dynamic as an adolescent development researcher in UD's College of Education and Human Development (CEHD).
In a new study published in Behavioral Sciences, CEHD alum Megha Garg, Gordon and her co-author Christine M. Ohannessian of Florida State University examine whether birth order and sibling-gender pairs are significantly associated with adolescents' use of coping strategies. After analyzing data from nearly 1,500 adolescents in the Northeast, they found that birth order and sibling gender affected an adolescent's use of coping strategies in surprising ways.
Gordon and her team expected birth order to significantly predict adolescents' use of coping strategies. For example, they anticipated older siblings would report using coping strategies more often than younger siblings. They also expected that siblings in same-gender pairs would use them more often than those in mixed-gender pairs.
"Our predictions aligned with family systems theory, which identifies patterns of behavior in family units and assigns certain roles to siblings based on birth order," Gordon explained. "For example, like I did, older siblings often play the role of 'hero,' displaying 'model' behavior for their younger siblings and helping their family address issues or problems." Surprisingly, the research team found mixed results when it came to birth order. When the adolescent and their sibling were in a same-gender pair, birth order was not associated with their use of any of the coping strategies addressed in the study.
But birth order did play a role when the adolescent and their sibling were in a mixed-gender pair. In these cases, being older than the sibling increased the likelihood of an adolescent's use of coping strategies—a finding that is novel to this study. "Previous research has shown that same-gender siblings have closer relationships than mixed-gender siblings during adolescence.
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