Possible gender differences in potential sibling rivalry

Abstract

The objective of this research is to explore the gender differences in adult sibling rivalry. Three Maltese sibling pairs (two brothers, two sisters, and a brother and a sister) between the ages of 30 to 56 were interviewed. All participants were interviewed individually and not together with their sibling. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyze the data collected from these interviews. Three superordinate themes were identified: Personal factors, Relationships, and Major life events. The results show that sibling rivalry differed greatly based on the gender of the sibling pair, amongst the three pairs interviewed in this study. These differences, along with the age-gap between siblings, influenced other aspects of the rivalry, such as communication styles, the attitude of the siblings towards each other, as well as the development of the sibling relationship.