Soc Work. 2022 Mar 14;67(2):175-183. doi: 10.1093/sw/swac009.
Across cultures, the majority of individuals will have a sibling relationship in their lifetime. Of particular importance to parents and children is the transition to siblinghood, which refers to the process wherein a child becomes a sibling. Although many parents are concerned about how their children will adjust during the transition to siblinghood, scant empirical work on this subject exists. Available empirical work on the transition to siblinghood has stemmed from developmental psychology; however, social work researchers have yet to deeply explore this body of work. The transition to siblinghood is a topic that is rife with opportunity for social work researchers, who have the ability to study this transition from culturally sensitive, person-in-environment, and social justice perspectives. This article provides an overview of the elements and importance of the transition to siblinghood, introduces a theoretical framework relevant to social workers, reviews existent empirical work on the transition to siblinghood, and elucidates limitations in the literature that social work researchers are adept to address. The article concludes with four recommendations to researchers who are interested in studying the transition to siblinghood through a social work lens.
在不同的文化中，大多数人在一生中都会有兄弟姐妹关系。对父母和孩子来说，特别重要的是向兄弟姐妹关系的转变，这是指孩子成为兄弟姐妹的过程。尽管许多父母担心孩子在向兄弟姐妹关系转变期间会如何适应，但关于这个主题的实证研究很少。关于向兄弟姐妹关系转变的现有实证研究来自发展心理学；然而，社会工作者尚未深入探索这一领域。向兄弟姐妹关系的转变是一个为社会工作研究者提供了很多机会的话题，他们有能力从文化敏感、人与环境以及社会正义的角度研究这种转变。本文概述了向兄弟姐妹关系转变的要素和重要性，介绍了与社会工作者相关的理论框架，回顾了关于向兄弟姐妹关系转变的现有实证研究，并阐明了文献中的局限性，社会工作研究者能够很好地解决这些局限性。文章最后为有兴趣通过社会工作视角研究向兄弟姐妹关系转变的研究人员提出了四条建议。
