The relationship between parental role expectations and sibling jealousy: the mediating effect of first-born children’s role cognition

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the relationship among parental role expectations, the firstborns’ sibling jealousy and their role cognition. A sample of 190 two-family firstborns aged 3-7 years old and their parents from China participated in the study by using experimental methods, questionnaires, and interviews. The results showed: (1) Parental role expectations had a significant positive effect on firstborns’ role cognition. (2) The dispositional sibling jealousy of the first-born children was positively correlated with their parents’ role expectations. (3) Firstborns’ role cognition mediated the relation between parental role expectations and episodic sibling jealousy completely. The first-born children were more inclined to perceive themselves as resource contender and experience the episodic sibling jealousy the greater the parental role expectations.