Research Paper
The International Journal of Indian Psychology
ISSN 2348-5396 (e) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (p)
Volume 6, Issue 2, DIP: 18.01.026/20180602
DOI: 10.25215/0602.026
http://www.ijip.in | April - June, 2018
2018 © Rathnasabapathy M, Wesley J R, Maharishi R & Athilakshmi R; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access
Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
(www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Understanding Sibling Influences: The Effects of Number of
Siblings and Order of Birth on Psycho-Social Behaviour among
Adolescents Girls
Maya Rathnasabapathy
1
*, J. Reeves Wesley
2
, Maharishi R
3
, Athilakshmi R
4
ABSTRACT
This study attempts to examine the impact of number of siblings and order of birth on
Psycho-social behaviour among Adolescents girls. The group consisted of 1218 adolescents
girls in the age group of 13-18 years selected by convenient sampling method. Twelve
Government schools were selected from twelve districts of Tamil Nadu. The results found
that there is a significant difference between number of siblings and order of birth across the
psychological and social factors such as emotional intelligence, resilience, stress, family
environment, school problem, social problem and personal problems.
Keywords: Number of siblings, order of birth, Psychological, Social, adolescent’s girls
British Household Parrel Survey explored the effect on child’s educational attainment based
on family size and birth order. The result indicated that the children share in family’s
educational resources decrease with birth order and also children from larger family had
lower levels of education. Research on sibling interrelationship explain the social dynamics
between them and its impact on youth development. Downey and Conden (2004) in their
study found children showed poor social skills in kindergarten who had no siblings Ozabaci
(2006) in his study on effects of family size and number of siblings on Emotional
Intelligence found that family environment affects development of the ego conflict of the
child and his social and emotional development. Sibling relationships are special since they
1
Psychology, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai – 600127,
Tamil Nadu, India
2
VIT Business School (VITBS), Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai – 600127, Tamil Nadu, India
3
Psychology, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai – 600127,
Tamil Nadu, India
4
Psychology, School of Social Sciences and Languages, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai – 600127,
Tamil Nadu, India
*Responding Author
Received: April 1, 2018; Revision Received: April 15, 2018; Accepted: May 29, 2018