Jealousy Expression and Communication Satisfaction in Adult Sibling Relationships

Abstract

Though sibling rivalry and jealousy is a prevalent research area in psychology and family studies, few scholars have explored how adult siblings expressed jealousy and how satisfied they were with their jealousy expression. To link the research areas of developmental and social psychology with family communication, the present study employed communication satisfaction and Guerrero, Andersen, Jorgensen, Spitzberg, and Eloy's (1995) communicative responses to jealousy in the context of adult sibling relationships. The current findings revealed that avoidance/denial was the most frequently reported form of jealousy expression by adult siblings. In addition, avoidance/denial, distributive communication, and violence were negatively related to communication satisfaction, whereas integrative communication was positively related to communication satisfaction. Each finding is discussed in relation to sibling interaction patterns.

Keywords:

• Communication satisfaction
• Jealousy expression
• Sibling relationships

Notes

Rivalry and jealousy are very similar concepts, and a recent study on sibling jealousy (Miller et al., 2000) found that such an experience could be managed and regulated much like previous research findings on rivalry (e.g., Masiuch & Kienapple, 1993). Thus, to allow for comparisons with general jealousy experience and expression research, sibling jealousy (rather than rivalry) will be the focus of this investigation.

Percentages do not add up to 100% because a handful of participants did not answer some or all of the demographic items.

All tests for hypotheses and research questions were also run with only those participants who reported on full siblings. The tests only on full sibling relationships did not produce results that differed from those for the full data set; thus, the full data set results are reported.

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2005 National Communication Association annual convention.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer L. Bevan

Jennifer L. Bevan is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Chapman University

Kristen A. Stetzenbach

Kristen A. Stetzenbach is a master's student in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.