Abstract
The current study was conducted to contribute to the growing body of research about the influence of the sibling relationship on development. While the importance of parents and caregivers has long been acknowledged, there is increased attention being given to understanding the impact siblings can have on one another in a variety of developmental contexts. Studies examining siblings’ influence within education have focused primarily on elementary and high school, resulting in limited knowledge regarding sibling impact surrounding higher education. It was the researcher’s goal to not only explore the role of siblings in motivating higher education attendance, but also to examine elements of the sibling dynamic that may make some relationships more influential than others.
Participants were 274 college students who attended a Northern California University and were enrolled in various General Education courses. The researcher created a survey examining participant demographics, motivation for attending college, and sibling demographics and relationship quality to gather quantitative data. Participants with no older siblings bypassed the sections pertaining to sibling demographics and relationship quality. Participants who had multiple older siblings completed the sibling demographic and relationship quality sections twice, answering the same questions with respect to their closest-aged and next closest-aged older siblings.
Older siblings were found to be less likely to motivate first-generation students’ higher education aspirations than non-first-generation students. However, regardless of generation status, older siblings received high ratings for providing motivation and support, second only to parents. Additionally, the warmth of the sibling relationship, but not conflict or age gap between siblings, was predictive of siblings’ motivation and support ratings, wherein siblings were more motivating and supportive within high warmth relationships.