Prospective associations between parenting practices, temperament, and sibling conflict during COVID-19

Abstract

Parenting styles and practices impact sibling relationship quality and sibling conflict. For instance, authoritative parenting style, parenting practices (such as warmth and rejection), and parental differential treatment were related to sibling closeness and relationship (Kowal & Kramer, 2006; Milevsky et al., 2011). During COVID-19, children and parents spent more time at home due to lockdowns. Therefore, the influence of parenting skills might be more salient. Due to COVID-19 disruption, exposure to parents' differential treatment increased, sibling relationships may be at risk (Prime et al., 2020), and sibling differences can occur (Browne et al., 2021). The current study aimed to examine the role of parenting practices (maternal warmth, rejection, and differential treatment) and children's temperament on sibling conflict during COVID-19. This study is a part of the leading project which aims to understand the role of parenting on the development of children. In January 2020, data collection for the main project started. However, in March 2020, the data collection had to be stopped due to COVID - 19. Between January and March in 2020, data were collected from 350 children and their mothers. After nine months, the same participants were followed during the pandemic. For the analysis, the data were filtered based whether they have siblings (n= 277) and lived with their siblings (n = 223). The mean age of children was 11.74 (SD = 2.60), and 141 were female, while 84 were male. Children's temperament was measured with parent reported forms: TMCQ, EATQ, and HSC Scales at wave one. Parenting practices were measured by the Perceptions of Differential Parental Treatment Scale and Parental AcceptanceRejection Questionnaire (PARQ). Children filled these forms at both times. Finally, The Sibling Conflict Scale was filled by children only at wave two. The pandemic influence was measured through contact with others, difficulties with online education (filled by children), and the COVID-19 experiences of mothers. Hierarchical regression analysis was run. demographic variables related to both children and their siblings were included in step one, while temperament variables (Overreaction to Stimuli (OS), Depth of Processing (DP), and Negative Affectivity education positively predicted sibling conflict (β = 0.45, p < 0.001). Related to parental practices, differential practices in negative domains at time one positively predicted conflict (β = 0.78, p < 0.01), showing that children perceiving higher differential treatment in negative domains compared to their siblings experienced more sibling conflict. Finally, increase in maternal rejection from time one to time two positively predicted sibling conflict (β = 0.56, p < 0.01) (see Table 1). In conclusion, it could be speculated that the COVID-19 lockdown influences the whole family members and the relationships in terms of practices and experiences.