News
Study: Having a Sister Improves Mental Health
The bond between siblings, particularly sisters, is a powerful thing capable of defending against depression.
Researchers from Brigham Young University found that loving sibling relationships have lasting positive effects on children's behavior and mental health, USA Today reports.
Laura Padilla-Walker, assistant professor in BYU's School of Family Life, told USA Today that this closeness encourages traits like kindness and generosity and helps protect against wrongdoing and depression.
"Siblings are people that a child lives with every day and yet we haven't really seriously considered their influence," James Harper, another professor in the School of Family Life, told USA Today.
Dr. Daniel Carlat, AOL Health's mental health expert, said that psychiatry has realized for a long time that siblings have lasting and significant effects on mental health, often more so than parents or outside friendships.
"It has always been clear that our close friends shape our identities as we grow up," he told AOL Health. "Siblings are, in a sense, our very closest friends if only because we are around them all the time."
In 2007 and 2008, Padilla-Walker and the BYU team followed nearly 400 Seattle families who had two or more children, with at least one child between the ages of 10 and 14.
Their findings suggested that having a sister is more valuable than having a brother, as sisters prevent teens "from feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious and fearful," the researchers wrote in the study available in the Journal of Family Psychology.
Padilla-Walker told USA Today that this could be because girls tend to take on caregiver roles and communicate their problems more openly.
Carlat said that in general relationships between sisters tend to be more mutual.
"Sisters will reciprocally reach out to one another, whereas sister-brother relationships tend to lack that balance, with brothers being less communicative, and less likely to respond to efforts to reach out," he told AOL Health.
Only children aren't left high and dry though, as Carlat said having no siblings doesn't necessarily pose negative effects.
"In fact, some studies have shown that only children have higher self esteem, which may be because they don't have to deal with sibling rivalry, and because they are made to feel special by their parents," he told AOL Health.
The study results also showed that parental influences don't impact children's actions as much as siblings do, as brothers and sisters have twice as much power to persuade kids to show kindness by volunteering, doing favors for others and being nice to people.
In general the positive effects held true no matter the children's age, gender or the birth gap between siblings.
But hostile sibling relationships may promote negative behavior, as siblings who often fight are more likely to experience aggression in other relationships, Harper told USA Today.
He said that parents need to nurture and encourage peaceful sibling relationships.
Carlat told AOL Health that when siblings fight, they can do real emotional damage to one another.
"It is important for parents to realize this, and to not simply take sibling rivalry for granted," he said. "If your kids are fighting with one another, resist the temptation to ignore it."
More on Family Health
Study: Damp Homes Increase Children's Risk of Nasal Allergies
Quick Tips Getting Active As A Family
