Characteristics of preschool children who act as caregivers to younger siblings

Abstract

The goal of this study was to identify which aspects of social cognition are associated with the development of preschool children's sibling caregiving behavior. Fifty-five child-sibling dyads were observed in a 4 min "strange situation" procedure. For each dyad, the frequency of preschoolers' caregiving acts was recorded as were the number of seconds the younger sibling was distressed. In a separate assessment, the preschoolers were administered four social cognitive tasks including cognitive and affective perspective-taking, emotion script knowledge, and knowledge of caregiving scripts. It was predicted that each of the social cognitive measures would make a unique positive contribution to the prediction of sibling caregiving. We also hypothesized that there would be a positive association between preschool children's caregiving behavior and the number of seconds the younger sibling was distressed. Results revealed that only affective perspective-taking and knowledge of caregiving scripts positively predicted preschoolers' sibling caregiving behavior. A curvilinear relation was found between preschoolers' sibling caregiving behavior and duration of the younger siblings' distress. That is, the preschoolers showed an increase in caregiving behavior in relation to their younger sibling's duration of distress but once that distress became prolonged, their caregiving behavior declined dramatically. The findings also indicated that, for some children, a second increase in caregiving emerged in relation to longer episodes of distress.