Sibling relationships and adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems

Abstract

We investigated the association between sibling relationship quality (affection, conflict, controlling and hostility) and internalizing and externalizing problems among 211 school-going Ghanaian adolescents (mean age =13.7 years, males = 42.1%). The results show that sibling conflict influenced the development of problem behaviors among the participants, with girls prone to exhibiting more internalizing problems than boys. In addition, adolescents from higher socio-economic backgrounds were more likely to develop externalizing problems. These results show that sibling relationship context is important in psychopathology and further longitudinal studies are required in clinical settings to understand and develop interventions for adolescents with negative sibling affects.

Keywords: adolescents, sibling relationships, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, Ghana