Presence of a Sibling as a Potential Buffer Following Parental Divorce: An Examination of Young Adolescents

Examined whether the presence of a sibling may buffer young adolescents from adverse influences of parental divorce. Subjects were 79 adolescents from intact families, 77 from divorced families, their mothers, and their social studies teachers. Independent variables included adolescent gender, parental marital status, and sibling group (i.e., no siblings, one older sibling only, or one younger sibling only). Dependent measures were externalizing behaviors as reported by the adolescent's teacher and internalizing behaviors as reported by the teacher and the adolescent. Results indicated a significant interaction between marital status and sibling group; specifically, adolescents with no siblings from divorced families were reported by teachers as demonstrating more externalizing problems than all other groups.