Who Said You Could Wear My Sweater? Adolescent Siblings' Conflicts and Associations With Relationship Quality

A new measure of sibling conflict was used to identify 2 types of conflicts in 115 adolescent sibling pairs (older siblings, M = 15.59, SD = 2.01 years; younger siblings, M = 13.02, SD = 2.06 years). Conflicts overall were more frequent than intense and more likely to involve the invasion of the personal domain than conflicts involving equality and fairness, especially by early adolescent older siblings. For both siblings, and with parents' ratings of their relationship with the target child controlled, these conflicts were negatively associated with sibling relationship quality. The implications of the findings for sibling relationships during adolescence are discussed.