When Parents Become Ineffective Social Buffers Do Siblings Step In?
Most of the research on social buffering has been on adults who are buffered by peers or partners, or by children buffered by parents. However, previous research suggests that parents are less effective in buffering the cortisol responses of mid-age adolescents and peers do not take over the social buffering role. This disappearance of parental social buffering may contribute to increased rates of psychopathology, especially in the context of chronic stress.
Dr. Jenalee Doom, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver, using an MRI grant, is the first to examine whether siblings may buffer stress responses across both childhood and adolescence. She is trying to understand whether sibling relationships may be effective buffers of stress responses. Dr. Doom hypothesizes that siblings may be effective buffers because, unlike peers, there is less pressure to feel accepted and liked by them. As a result, siblings may be more comforting in adolescence than either parents or peers during stressful situations.
The specific aims of this project are:
To test the hypothesis that adolescents will transition from using parents to using siblings as buffers from stress as measured by decreased cortisol reactivity to acute stress.
To test the hypothesis that children will be buffered from stress by siblings, as measured by decreased cortisol reactivity to acute stress.
To test whether sibling relationship quality and quality of sibling support are moderators of the effectiveness of siblings as social buffers.
In this very interesting study children are given a stress inducing task. Their cortisol levels are measured before and after the task. If the study finds that siblings can biologically buffer teens from stress while parents cannot, interventions can focus on improving sibling relationships to protect teens from stress and improve their wellbeing. The study will also identify social factors that may be particularly important for social buffering, such as sensitive and responsive support behaviors, or perceived trust in the sibling. In this way important targets for therapeutic intervention can be generated.
Adolescence is a particularly important period for intervention as it is a time when relationships with parents and peers evolve rapidly, loneliness increases and mental health problems spike. Understanding whether siblings may be an effective target for improving relationship quality may have outsize impact on how adolescents respond to stressors and will offer valuable information for creating psychosocial interventions to improve health. If it is found that siblings can reduce stress responses in children and/or adolescents, future directions can include creating and testing interventions that strengthen sibling buffering relationships.