There are many misconceptions when it comes to the relationship or the effect of gender on sibling rivalry. For example, some people believe that sibling rivalry is more intense or will be more frequent when it comes to how sisters relate to one another. Other people believe that siblings that are not the same gender will have less sibling rivalry than other siblings. Still, it can be difficult to truly know what the effect of gender on sibling rivalry truly is.

There has not been that much research on the effect of gender on sibling rivalry. Because of this, it can be difficult to know for certain what effect there may be. There has been more research into the specific sorts of causes of sibling rivalry, however, that may provide more answers than questions about gender. For example, siblings who are closer together in age tend to experience more sibling rivalry. Often, this is because siblings of a closer age tend to compete more, whether it is socially, academically, or in some other way.

There is one area that gender effects sibling rivalry. Siblings who are of the same gender do tend to experience sibling rivalry more than siblings of opposite gender. However, it gets a bit fuzzy after that. Many experts believe that the reason that siblings of the same gender experience more sibling rivalry than siblings of opposite gender has less to do with the actual gender of the siblings than it does with other aspects of the situation. For example, siblings of the same gender are often asked to share a bedroom. They may often feel as though they have little or no personal space, and that their sibling is responsible. In some cases, especially when siblings of the same gender are close together in age, they may compete even for things like who gets the bed nearest to the window.

Ultimately, it would seem that the effect of gender on sibling rivalry is minimal, but further research on this topic is needed. Other factors, such as the age of the siblings and other circumstances, tend to play a larger role in sibling rivalry than gender does.

Posted in Parenting

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