Anoshka Roychan^1,, Mamta Verma², Lily Podder³

Objective: The sibling relationship is one of the most unique relationships and is characterized and symbolized by both love and rivalry. Although siblings are a fixture of family life, research on sibling relationships lags behind as compared to other family relationships. This literature documents siblings’ essentiality in family life, the significance of siblings for child development and adjustment. Materials and methods: An in depth literature search has been carried out in various Electronic Databases like MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, Google Scholar etc., since 2000 to 2023 using suitable key words like sibling influence, sibling relations, family processes, sibling studies to obtain eligible studies. Results: A total of 60 articles were reviewed in which only 32 articles met the inclusion criteria. The results indicate that siblings held a very important role in the development and adjustment of children with their environment and themselves too. Conclusion: Sibling influences emerge not only in the context of emotionally intense interactions but also exhibited by siblings’ role in larger family system dynamics. Their role has been relatively neglected by family scholars, psychologists, social researchers and by those who study close relationships, even though siblings are building blocks of family structure and basis of foundation in family dynamics. Integrating study of siblings and their influence on childhood behavior into family research provides novel insights into the operation of families as a social unit.

sibling influence, sibling relations, family processes, sibling studies