Slomkowski Cheryl, Conger Katherine J, Rende Richard, Heylen Elsa, Little Wendy M, Shebloski Barbara, Fox Patricia, Craine Jessie L, Conger Rand D
Cheryl Slomkowski, Richard Rende, Butler Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Patricia Fox, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Katherine J. Conger, Elsa Heylen, Wendy M. Little, Barbara Shebloski, Jessie L. Craine, Rand D. Conger, University of California, Davis.
Eur J Dev Sci. 2009 Sep 1;3(2):161.
Siblings represent an important social influence on alcohol use in adolescence. That said, there is a need for studies that examine potential mechanisms by which siblings exert an influence on the likelihood of drinking in adolescence. This paper illustrates a method that utilizes videotaped interaction between sibling dyads along with a micro social coding system that captures rule break behavior between siblings. Sibling interaction was observed in sibling pairs participating in the Iowa Youth and Families Project (IYFP) at baseline; younger sibling use of alcohol was tracked for 3 additional annual assessments. Exposure to older sibling rule break at baseline was associated with later use of alcohol by younger siblings across the 3 annual assessments. Micro social methods hold promise for uncovering processes that underlie sibling contagion for alcohol use in adolescence.
