The influence of parenting style on sibling relations among children aged 4–6 in rural areas in Northern China–a regression model

ABSTRACT

To determine the status of sibling relations among first-born children aged 4–6 years and the influence of parenting style on sibling relationships among rural children, the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire and Parenting Style Questionnaire were used to survey 373 parents of children with sibling relationships who were between 4 and 6 years old and lived in rural areas in northern China. We found that the sibling relations among first-born children in rural areas in northern China had moderate quality and were typically warm. There was a degree of correlation between the sibling relations of these children and parenting style, and the democratic parenting style was the most commonly used. The data confirm that the parenting style of rural parents can predict rural children’s sibling relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Sibling relations
• parenting style
• regression model
• rural area
• Northern China

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Professor Maria Cheng from the Chinese University of Hong Kong for her guidance on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The survey procedures in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number 19BSH049).