Examining Sibling Communication About Problematic Drinking: An Application of Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory

ABSTRACT

This study applies inconsistent nurturing as control (INC) theory to examine how siblings describe communicating about problematic drinking. Thirty-five college students reported on how they and a sibling discuss drinking that is perceived as problematic and described behaviors related to the problematic drinking. Interviews were transcribed and coded in two separate rounds of coding; the first round identified categories related to INC theory (reinforcement, punishment, and labeling). Reinforcement often took the form of avoiding the topic of drinking and using drinking as a means for bonding. Punishment primarily took the form of confrontation. The second round identified such themes as frustration at the inability to stop a sibling’s drinking, a tendency to overlook the severity of the drinking, and a combination of wanting to discuss alcohol openly, but also wanting to avoid discussions about negative consequences. There were five primary descriptions of power dynamics: equal and open with one another (friend-like relationship), one sibling in control (parent-like relationship), power as context-based, power changing over the course of the relationship due to a significant event (i.e., parents’ divorce), and power as a personality trait.

Notes

¹ The alpha score is likely a result of the nature of the coding categories. All of the categories were coded as 1 = present or 0 = absent. As De Swert (2012) explains, it is sometimes the case that Krippendorff’s Alpha ends up being in the midrange if all of the categories have values of zero or one, even if the percentage of agreement between the coders is high. Additionally, Cohen’s Kappa was not a suitable measure of inter-rater reliability because in the majority of the interviews, the themes were coded as present, rather than absent. Therefore, there was a prevalence bias in the coding that made percentage of agreement a more appropriate measure of inter-rater reliability (Cicchetti & Feinstein, 1990).