Sibling Correlates of Family Environment Dimensions: Ethnic Group Differences

Summary

Regression surfaces were used to examine relationships between sibling variables and family learning environments at different social status levels, for families from Australian ethnic groups. Models that examined possible linear, interaction, and curvilinear relations were used to generate the surfaces. Sibling variables included sibsize, inverse of sibsize, and birth order, while family environments were defined by parents': aspirations, achievement orientations, press for: English, reading and independence, and individualistic-collectivistic achievement-value orientations. Included in the sample were 460 Anglo-Australian, 200 Greek, and 150 Southern Italian parents. Each family had an 11-year-old child and interviews with parents related to those children. Generally, the sibling variables had negligible to moderate associations with the environment dimensions at each social-status level. The findings did reveal, however, the presence of differential relations between sibling variables, children's learning environments, and social status, for families from different ethnic groups.