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Sibling Relationships and Adolescents' Mental Health : The Interrelationship of Structure and Quality
Anastasia S. Vogt Yuan Journal of Family Issues 2009 30: 1221 originally published online 21 April 2009 DOI: 10.1177/0192513X09334906 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jfi.sagepub.com/content/30/9/1221

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Sibling Relationships and Adolescents Mental Health

The Interrelationship of Structure and Quality
Anastasia S. Vogt Yuan

Journal of Family Issues Volume 30 Number 9 September 2009 1221-1244 2009 SAGE Publications 10.1177/0192513X09334906 http://jfi.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

Although sibling structure influences some aspects of adolescents wellbeing, including deviance and educational achievement, little research has explored the association between sibling structure and adolescents mental health. This study explores how sibling structure (the number of siblings, full versus step- or half-siblings, the relative age of siblings, and the gender composition of siblings) influences adolescents mental health and whether sibling relationship quality mediates or interacts with sibling structure. Using data from the 1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the author performs multilevel modeling to control for siblings sharing a joint family context. Results indicate that sibling structure has few associations with mental health and sibling relationship quality generally does not mediate (or suppress) these associations. However, sibling structure moderates the association between sibling relationship quality and adolescents mental health. Thus, sibling structure and relationship quality appear to be interconnected in their influence on adolescents mental health. Keywords: adolescents; depression; mental health; siblings

he structure of sibling relationships has a large impact on childrens and adolescents well-being, particularly deviance (Duncan, Duncan, & Hops, 1996; Rodgers & Rowe, 1990) and educational achievement (e.g., Blake, 1985, 1989; Downey, 1995; Powell & Steelman, 1993). However, little research has explored the influence of sibling structure on mental health, even though most theories about siblings (e.g., resource dilution theory, social learning theory) have mental health implications. This study explores the association between sibling structure and adolescents mental health (as indicated by depressive symptoms and positive

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well-being) and whether sibling relationship quality mediates or moderates this association. This study considers sibling structure on two levels. First, sibling structure is explored at an aggregate (household) level as the number of siblings, step- or half-siblings, and twins. Second, because of the survey design, sibling structure as relative age and gender composition of siblings could be explored only at the dyadic level. The analysis uses a large national data set that samples siblings from the same family. Multilevel modeling is performed to determine the influences of sibling relationships on mental health independent of the clustering effects due to belonging to the same family as well as to control for the clustering of respondents by school districts due to the school-based stratified random sampling design.

Sibling Structure, Relationship Quality, and Adolescents Mental Health

Theoretical Explanations Regarding Sibling Structure and Adolescents Mental Health
Several theories imply that a variety of aspects of sibling structure should be consequential for adolescents mental health, including the number of siblings, full-siblings compared to step- or half-siblings, the relative age of siblings, and gender composition of siblings. For instance, resource dilution theory posits that the number of siblings influences adolescents well-being because having more siblings dilutes parental resources, which can adversely influence adolescents well-being (Blake, 1985, 1989; Downey, 1995). Although resource dilution theory has mainly been used to explain differences in educational outcomes, the theory could apply to
Authors Note: I thank K. Jill Kiecolt, Michael Hughes, Allan V. Horwitz, and Douglas B. Downey for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant (P01-HD31921) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (addhealth@unc.edu). No direct support was received through Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis. Address correspondence to Anastasia S. Vogt Yuan, Department of Sociology, 560 McBryde Hall (0137), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0137; e-mail: avy@vt.edu.

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adolescents mental health in three ways. First, the number of siblings could influence adolescents mental health through diluting parental resources (Downey, 1995). This dilution of parental resources could lead to conflict, jealousy, and perceptions of an unequal distribution of parental resources among adolescents, thereby decreasing adolescents mental health. Second, the number of siblings could affect adolescents mental health through sibling relationship quality because having more siblings may not only dilute parental resources but may also dilute the amount of time and the quality of the relationships that siblings have with one another. Third, maintaining multiple strong sibling relationships may be burdensome and stressful. For example, maintaining a large social support network is stressful, resulting in poorer mental health (George, Blazer, Hughes, & Fowler, 1989; Haines & Hurlbert, 1992). Nevertheless, resource dilution theory may underestimate the potential benefits of large families in two ways. First, rather than diluting sibling relationships, additional siblings may be potential sources of social support, thereby improving overall sibling relationship quality and mental health. Second, although parental resources may be diluted, jealousy and conflict may not result if siblings learn to share resources and develop social skills for dealing with conflict (Downey & Condron, 2004). Both the theory of the incomplete institutionalization and the biosocial perspective indicate that having step- or half-siblings is detrimental for adolescents well-being. According to the theory of incomplete institutionalization, roles in stepfamilies lack clearly defined norms and expectations, which make sibling relationships among step- or half-siblings more conflicted and aloof than full-sibling relationships (Cherlin, 1978). Similarly, the biosocial perspective on stepfamilies proposes that stepfamily relationships have negative effects on adolescents, although for a different reason (Popenoe, 1994). This theory, which generally focuses on parentchild relationships, posits that biological ties between parents and children are essential for forming high-quality parentchild relationships, and thus stepfathers are poor substitutes for biological fathers (Popenoe, 1994). This theory also has two implications for step- and half-siblings. First, sibling relationship quality may be poorer among siblings who lack a complete biological tie. Second, in blended families, biological ties to parents vary across siblings. Because the other sibling has a biological tie to the stepparent, jealousy or a perception of inequality in parental resources among step- or half-siblings could result. Research supports both theories by finding that biologically related siblings are more involved with their siblings during adolescence (Hetherington, Henderson, & Reiss, 1999). Also, differential parental treatment of siblings

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is greatest in remarried families where the children are not biologically related (Mekos, Hetherington, & Reiss, 1996). Although the biosocial perspective and the incomplete institutionalization perspective both would predict a negative association between blended families and adolescents mental health via lower sibling relationship quality, these theories differ in one important respect. According to the biosocial perspective, poor sibling relationship quality in blended families is inevitable because step- and halfsiblings lack a complete biological tie. However, from the incomplete institutionalization perspective, sibling relationship quality among stepand half-siblings could improve by spending more time together, which would likewise improve adolescents mental health. Social learning theory indicates that the age structure of sibling relationships may influence adolescents well-being because children and adolescents learn from and model the behavior of older persons (Bandura, 1977). Thus, although there are bidirectional effects among siblings, older siblings should have a stronger influence on younger siblings mental health than vice versa because they would have more knowledge and experience to provide to younger siblings. Most of this research has focused on how older siblings act as role models of behavior (Compton, Snyder, Schrepferman, Bank, & Shortt, 2003; Duncan et al., 1996; Widmer, 1997). Yet older siblings also can benefit younger siblings by providing social support and advice (Widmer & Weiss, 2003). Research finds both positive and negative influences of older siblings on younger siblings well-being, for example, through antisocial talk (Shortt, Capaldi, Dishion, Bank, & Owen, 2003) and hostility and warmth (Slomkowski, Rende, Conger, Simons, & Conger, 2001). However, some research has shown bidirectional associations as well, with older siblings being affected by younger siblings (Conger & Reuter, 1996; Lauritsen, 1993). Social comparison theory indicates that having similar characteristics to siblings such as age or gender may make sibling relationships more consequential for well-being because people compare themselves to others with similar characteristics or interests (Festinger, 1954). Thus, twins may compare themselves to one another and have similar interests because of being the same age. Twins age similarity may also promote solidarity, provide social support, and encourage siblings to protect each other from outside negative interactions with parents or other adults. For instance, most adolescents with twins appear to have strong relationships with one another by indicating that they spend a lot of time together (Horwitz, Videon, Schmitz, & Davis, 2003).

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Furthermore, same-gender siblings may have higher quality relationships and be more greatly influenced by each other than opposite-gender siblings. Alternatively, research on social support indicates that women generally receive more social support from social relationships than men do (Turner & Marino, 1994; Umberson, Chen, House, Hopkins, & Slater, 1996) and that relationships tend to be more interactive and intimate for women (Umberson et al., 1996). One possible explanation is that women tend to be the main providers of social support. Thus, according to this idea, both men and women would benefit more from having relationships with women (e.g., Weaver, Coleman, & Ganong, 2003). Instead, women may actively seek out more supportive and intimate relationships than men do, and thus women should benefit more from having any relationship whether with a man or a woman. Both of these processes may be occurring so that sibling relationships are most beneficial when both siblings are girls. Research on the influence of the gender composition of siblings on sibling relationship quality has been contradictory. Some research supports social comparison theory by finding that same-sex siblings are more likely than opposite-sex siblings to identify with each other (Weaver et al., 2003). Furthermore, same-sex siblings, especially brothers, have a particularly strong impact on their siblings behavior (Hoffman, Kiecolt, & Edwards, 2005; Rodgers & Rowe, 1990; Widmer, 1997). On the other hand, research on adult siblings finds that girls with sisters gain more social support from sibling relationships than boys with brothers do (Bedford, 1998). However, sibling dyads with at least one girl have higher levels of warmth and support than other sibling dyads (Conger & Conger, 1996). Furthermore, girls have more confiding relationships with their siblings during adolescence (Dunn, 1996).

The Interrelationship Between Sibling Structure and Sibling Relationship Quality

Previous research on sibling structure and adolescents mental health may be incomplete because the relationship between sibling structure and adolescents mental health cannot be considered independent of sibling relationship quality. Indeed, most theories about siblings indicate that the influence of sibling structure on adolescents well-being is interrelated with sibling relationship quality in one of two ways. First, sibling structure could influence adolescents well-being by affecting sibling relationship quality

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so that sibling relationship quality mediates this association. Alternatively, sibling structure could interact with sibling relationship quality so that sibling structure moderates the association between sibling relationship quality and adolescents mental health. That is, sibling relationship quality could have a stronger (or weaker) association with adolescents mental health for certain types of sibling structures. In this way, this study will consider the interrelationship between sibling structure and sibling relationship quality in their influence on adolescents mental health. This study also improves on past research by using multilevel modeling to control for both the genetic and environmental factors associated with the family context. There are several possible situations in which sibling structure and sibling relationship quality could be interrelated. For instance, adolescents with more siblings could have worse mental health because of having poorer sibling relationships such as spending less time with siblings and having more conflict and jealousy among siblings, as is implied by resource dilution theory. Another possibility is that a moderating effect could occur where adolescents with more siblings are simply less affected by each additional sibling so that adolescents mental health is improved less by high sibling relationship quality if they have more siblings. Furthermore, adolescents with step- or half-siblings are expected to have poorer quality sibling relationships than adolescents with full siblings, resulting in worse mental health, which is implied by both the incomplete institutionalization and biosocial perspectives. However, perhaps blended families can establish their own norms and role expectations if they spend enough time together. If this is the case, the mental health of adolescents with step- or half-siblings would be expected to be more strongly affected by spending time with their siblings than it would be for adolescents with full siblings. Although age differences should not necessarily alter the quality of sibling relationships because social learning theory predicts bidirectional effects between older and younger siblings, they may alter the strength of its effects. Thus, relationships with older siblings are expected to have a stronger effect on adolescents mental health than relationships with younger siblings. Furthermore, same-age siblings (mostly twins) would be expected to have higher quality sibling relationships and be more affected by the quality of their sibling relationships than differing-age siblings because they are more likely to compare themselves to others with similar characteristics, as implied by social comparison theory. Finally, similar expectations exist for same-gender siblings, although the benefits of having same-gender

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siblings may occur only for girls with sisters, as some previous research indicates that only sisters tend to form these types of close, supportive sibling relationships.

Method
Data Set
This study uses data from the 1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Add Health is a school-based study of adolescents in Grades 7 through 12 from a nationally representative sample of 80 high schools and their feeder junior or middle schools during the 1994-1995 school year. The full sample consists of 18,337 respondents. For the first wave, the school-based survey was followed up by in-home interviews. This study uses the in-home data. Specifically, the sample for this study is the pairs subsample, which consists of adolescents who had one or more siblings in the study, because adolescents were asked questions regarding sibling relationship quality only if they had a sibling in the study. This resulted in the sample size of 3,198 adolescents for the full sample of siblings from the pairs subsample. Some additional analyses are performed on a dyad sample of 914 respondents with only one sibling (a subset taken from the pairs subsample of 3,198 adolescents). In the first analysis with 3,198 cases, all respondents who answered the questions on sibling relationship quality are included even if their sibling was missing on these questions. The second analysis was reduced to 914 cases because the pairs needed to be matched so respondents are excluded if they had more than one sibling or their sibling neglected to answer these questions. Siblings were matched by family identifiers, but not all siblings were included, especially if they were not the appropriate age for the survey, that is, 11-20 years, which limits how large the age gap could be among the matched pairs of siblings in the dyad sample. The social characteristics of the pairs subsample of 3,198 respondents are similar to the full Add Health data set in terms of gender, age, and socioeconomic status (including family income, fathers and mothers education, and welfare status). The pairs subsample differs in the following respects: It has more Caucasians and fewer African Americans and Latinos, more two-parent biological families and fewer single-parent families, more rural and fewer suburban and urban residents, and more Midwestern and fewer Southern and Northeastern residents. Many racialethnic groups are oversampled. When weighted, percentages are 13% African American, 9%

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Latino, 5% Asian, 1% Other race, and 72% Caucasian. About half of the respondents in the subsample are girls, and the average age is 15.5 years. Twelve percent of the sample receive welfare. The average family income is $45,712. Both mothers and fathers have 13 years of education on average. Most respondents are in two-parent biological families (65%), with 11% in stepfamilies, 2% in households without parents (i.e., not living with parents), and 22% in single-parent families. Half of respondents live in suburban communities (50%), with 16% living in urban and 34% living in rural settings. The largest percentages of the sample live in the Midwest (46%) and South (29%), with smaller percentages living in the West (15%) and Northeast (10%).

Measures
Mental health. Two measures of mental health are useddepressive symptoms and positive well-being. Both measures are indexes that are created by averaging responses. Depressive symptoms are measured by an eight-item scale of a modified version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depressive Symptoms Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977; Ross & Mirowsky, 1984). Respondents were asked how often during the past week they had experienced depressive symptoms including if they were bothered by things that do not normally bother them, could not shake off the blues, felt depressed, and felt sad. Response categories ranged from (0) never or rarely to (3) most of the time or all of the time. Alpha reliability is .83. The square root of depressive symptoms is used to reduce skewness. Positive well-being is measured by a three-item scale. Respondents were asked how often during the past 7 days they had experienced positive emotions such as felt happy, enjoyed life, and were hopeful for the future. Response categories ranged from (0) never or rarely to (3) most of the time or all of the time. Alpha reliability is .70. Positive well-being and depressive symptoms disaggregate the positive and negative components of the CES-D into separate indicators of mental well-being. Similar measures using these data have been used by Harker (2001) and Joyner and Udry (2000). For further discussion of these two aspects of mental well-being, see Keyes (2002). Sibling structure. Three measures of sibling structure are included for the full samplenumber of siblings, step- or half-siblings, and twin. Number of siblings is determined by the number of brothers and sisters that live in the same household as the respondent. Step- or half-siblings are determined by whether the respondent has any step- or half-siblings that live in the same household. Twin is determined by whether one of the siblings is a twin.

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Two additional measures of sibling structure are used in the analysis of respondents who have only one sibling. Measuring siblings specific characteristics (such as gender composition and relative age ordering) is only possible for respondents with one sibling, because sibling characteristics and sibling relationship quality variables are not measured for each specific sibling. The variable gender composition of the sibling pair has four possible categoriesgirls with a sister, boys with a brother, girls with a brother, and boys with a sister (reference category). Relative age of siblings indicates the relative age ordering of siblings by three possible categories same-age, younger, and older (reference category) siblings. In these additional analyses, only having step- or half-siblings is controlled for, because having a twin is highly correlated with same-age siblings and the number of siblings is constant at one sibling. Respondents gender also is not controlled, because it is perfectly correlated with gender composition of the sibling pair. Sibling relationship quality. Five variables are used to determine the quality of the sibling relationship. To construct each of these variables, respondents were asked the same questions in reference to each of the respondents siblings. These items were averaged to represent the average across all siblings for that variable. In this way, the aggregate contribution of sibling relationships is measured. These items are averaged rather than summed, because summing the items would conflate sibling relationship quality with the number of siblings. Time spent with siblings is indicated by how much time the respondent spent together with each sibling. Responses ranged from (1) none to (4) a lot. Time spent with the same friends is indicated by asking how much time the respondent spent with the same friends as each sibling. Responses ranged from (1) none to (4) a lot. Feel love for siblings is indicated by a question asking how often the respondent feels love for each sibling. Responses ranged from (1) never to (5) very often. Quarrel or fight with siblings is indicated by how often the respondent quarrels or fights with each sibling. Responses ranged from (1) never to (5) very often. Finally, the variable for siblings receive more attention and love is indicated by a question asking the respondent how much attention and love each sibling receives from the parents relative to him or her. Responses ranged from (1) a lot less to (5) a lot more. Social characteristics. Age (in both samples) and gender (in the full sample only) are controlled. Girls are compared to boys, and age ranges from 11 to 20 in this sample. Raceethnicity is controlled by comparing African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Other race, and Whites. Family structure

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compares stepfamilies, two-parent biological families, households without parents (i.e., not living with parents), and single-parent families. Singleparent families are the reference category, because previous research has shown them to be associated with poor mental health among adolescents (McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994). Three indicators of socioeconomic status are included: welfare status, parental education, and family income. Welfare status is measured by whether the respondents parent(s) is on welfare or not. Family income is measured in thousands of dollars, whereas fathers and mothers education is in years. For family income, fathers education, and mothers education, missing cases are imputed. Finally, measures of urban, suburban, or rural residence and region (Midwest, Northeast, South, or West) are included.

Analysis
The analyses investigate how the structure of sibling relationships is related to adolescents mental health and are performed in two parts. First, the relationship between sibling structure and adolescents mental health is explored with controls for social characteristics. The analyses using the full sample explore the influence of number of siblings, full versus step- or half-siblings, and twinship on adolescents mental health, whereas the analyses using the dyad sample explore the influence of gender composition and relative age ordering of the sibling pair on mental health. Next, the analyses add sibling relationship quality to the model to test whether sibling relationship quality mediates (or suppresses) the relationship between sibling structure and adolescents mental health. Finally, the analyses test whether the relationship between sibling relationship quality and adolescents mental health is moderated by sibling structure by testing interactions between sibling structure and sibling relationship quality (see Baron and Kenny, 1986, for a more detailed discussion of mediation and moderation). All analyses are weighted to correct for the oversampling of twins in the study. This analysis uses multilevel modeling. Multilevel modeling is a statistical technique that determines the association between variables taking into account that individuals are clustered in social environments. This clustering could cause individuals to give similar answers and cause the error terms to be correlated across individuals, which violates an assumption of ordinary least squares regression (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992). The multilevel program MLwiN is used to model an error term for the context separate from the error term for the individual (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992;

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Table 1 Descriptive Statistics of Study Variables

Mental health Depressive symptoms (square root) Positive well-being Sibling structure Number of siblings Step- or half-siblings Twin Sibling relationship quality Spend time with siblings Spend time with same friends Feel love for siblings Quarrel or fight with siblings Siblings receive more attention and love M 0.684 2.028 2.132 0.192 0.119 3.133 2.372 3.856 3.120 3.212 SD 0.355 0.701 1.325 0.394 0.324 0.827 1.029 1.021 1.068 0.654 Range 0-1.732 0-3 1-8 0-1 (dummy variable) 0-1 (dummy variable) 1-4 1-4 1-5 1-5 1-5

Note: All analyses based on weighted data; n = 3,198.

Goldstein et al., 1998). In this analysis, respondents are clustered within school districts (because of the stratified sampling design) and families, as siblings were sampled from the same family. A three-level hierarchical model is estimated, with respondents clustered within families and families clustered within school districts.

Results
Table 1 shows the weighted means and standard deviations for the variables. On average, respondents have good relationships with their siblings: they spend some time with their siblings, spend little to some time with the same friends as their siblings, and often feel love for their siblings. Respondents also sometimes quarrel with their siblings and indicate that siblings receive about the same amount of attention and love from their parents as they do. On average, respondents have two siblings. Nineteen percent of the sample has step- or half-siblings. Twelve percent of the sample has a twin. The means for the dependent variables indicate that most respondents have low levels of depressive symptoms and high levels of positive well-being. Within the dyad sample of respondents with only one sibling, 27% are girls with a sister, 29% boys with a brother, 22% girls with a brother, and 22% boys

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with a sister. About 45% are older, 45% are younger, and 10% are the same age as their siblings. All of these percentages are weighted to adjust for the oversample of twins. Table 2 shows mental health regressed on sibling structure and sibling relationship quality controlling for social characteristics for the full sample. Model 1 shows the relationship between sibling structure and adolescents mental health. Model 2 also includes significant measures of sibling relationship quality, and Model 3 adds significant interactions between sibling relationship quality and sibling structure. Table 3 shows the same results for the sibling dyad sample. For depressive symptoms (Table 3) and positive well-being (Table 2), Model 3 is not shown because none of the interactions are significant. Model 1 in Table 2 shows that sibling structure is not related to adolescents depressive symptoms and positive well-being. A few of the relationships become significant once sibling relationship quality is controlled. For instance, having more siblings increases depressive symptoms, with controls for sibling relationship quality (Model 2). Also, adolescents with twins have lower positive well-being than adolescents without twins, once sibling relationship quality is controlled (Model 2). Adolescents who spend more time with siblings have fewer depressive symptoms and higher positive well-being (Model 2). Generally, spending time with their siblings friends is not related to adolescents mental health. Feeling love for siblings is negatively related to depressive symptoms and positively related to positive well-being (Model 2). Adolescents who quarrel or fight with their siblings have higher depressive symptoms (Model 2). Finally, adolescents who feel that siblings receive more attention and love from parents have higher depressive symptoms and lower positive wellbeing (Model 2). Model 3 in Table 2 shows the interactions of sibling relationship quality by sibling structure on adolescents mental health. Sibling structure moderates three of the relationships between sibling relationship quality and adolescents depressive symptoms in the full sample. Figure 1 shows that feeling love for siblings only slightly decreases the depressive symptoms of adolescents with one sibling. For adolescents with more than one sibling, feeling love for siblings is positively related to depressive symptoms, possibly because of the burden of having to maintain multiple strong sibling relationships. As Figure 2 shows, spending time with siblings is negatively related to depressive symptoms among adolescents with step- or half-siblings but has very little effect on depressive symptoms of adolescents with full siblings. Finally, Figure 3 indicates that spending time with the same
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Table 2 Multilevel Model of Mental Health Regressed on Sibling Structure and Sibling Relationship Quality for the Full Sample
Depressive Symptoms Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 1 Positive Well-Being Model 2a

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Fixed effects Sibling structure Number of siblings .008 (.006) .013* (.006) .021 (.014) .019 (.011) .017 (.011) Step- or half-siblings .015 (.019) .015 (.019) .158** (.055) .011 (.038) .024 (.037) Twin .006 (.015) .011 (.015) .091** (.038) .050 (.029) .086** (.029) Sibling relationship quality Spend time with siblings .021* (.009) .009 (.010) .063*** (.016) Spend time with same friends .006 (.007) .016* (.008) Feel love for siblings .012* (.006) .012* (.006) .093*** (.013) Quarrel or fight with siblings .053*** (.006) .030** (.011) Siblings receive more attention and love .055*** (.009) .054*** (.009) .074*** (.019) Interactions Feel Love for Siblings Number of Siblings .011** (.004) Spend Time With Siblings Step- or Half-Siblings .046** (.017) Spend Time With Same Friends Twin .029* (.013) Constant 0.348 (0.082) 0.037 (0.091) 0.047 (0.097) 1.892 (0.169) 1.664 (0.177) Random effects School districtlevel error variance .000 (.001) .000 (.001) .001 (.001) .008* (.004) .008** (.003) Family-level error variance .022*** (.003) .022*** (.003) .021*** (.003) .056*** (.013) .050*** (.012) Individual-level error variance .094*** (.004) .090*** (.003) .090*** (.003) .407*** (.015) .396*** (.015) 2 Log likelihood 2,165.2 2,012.8 1,994.4 6,628.8 6,512.4

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Note: Unstandardized coefficients are shown with standard errors in parentheses; all analyses based on weighted data; n = 3,198. Control variables include age, gender, raceethnicity, mothers education, fathers education, family income, family structure, welfare status, type of residential area, and region. a. Model 3 is not shown because no interaction effects are significant. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001 (two-tailed tests).

1234 Depressive Symptoms Model 1 Model 2

a

Table 3 Multilevel Model of Mental Health Regressed on Sibling Structure and Sibling Relationship Quality for the Dyad Sample
Positive Well-Being Model 1 Model 2 Model 3

.142* (.061) .139* (.065) .462 (.358) .254 (.329) .165 (.376) .021 (.084) .061 (.062) .126*** (.024) .033 (.051) .072* (.034) .273** (.083) .125 (.078) .112 (.087) (continued)

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Fixed effects Sibling structure Same-ageb .041 (.032) .058 (.031) .088 (.062) .129* (.061) Youngerb .045 (.035) .055 (.034) .135* (.068) .138* (.066) Girls with a sisterc .050 (.035) .040 (.034) .128 (.068) .026 (.068) Boys with a brotherc .020 (.034) .023 (.033) .101 (.066) .085 (.065) Girls with a brotherc .081* (.037) .059 (.036) .075 (.071) .056 (.069) Step- or half-siblings .030 (.044) .032 (.043) .071 (.086) .045 (.084) Sibling relationship quality Spend time with siblingsd .072* (.031) Feel love for siblings .125*** (.024) Quarrel or fight with siblings .059*** (.011) .016 (.021) .081*** (.018) .079* (.034) Siblings receive more attention and love Interactions Spend Time With Siblings Girls With a Sister Spend Time With Siblings Boys With a Brother Spend Time With Siblings Girls With a Brother

Table 3 (continued)
Depressive Symptoms Model 1 Model 2a Model 1 Model 2 Positive Well-Being Model 3

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Quarrel or Fight With Siblings Girls .124* (.062) With a Sister Quarrel or Fight With Siblings Boys .010 (.062) With a Brother Quarrel or Fight With Siblings Girls .041 (.068) With a Brother Constant 0.303 (0.187) 0.224 (0.195) 1.949 (0.366) 1.720 (0.400) 1.953 (0.462) Random effects School districtlevel error variance .003 (.002) .002 (.002) .027* (.011) .024* (.010) .026* (.011) Family-level error variance .045* (.022) .047* (.020) .109 (.093) .108 (.087) .112 (.084) Individual-level error variance .073*** (.022) .066*** (.020) .325*** (.093) .301*** (.086) .288*** (.083) 2 Log likelihood 664.3 611.4 1,863.4 1,809.4 1,790.6

Note: Unstandardized coefficients are shown with standard errors in parentheses; all analyses based on weighted data; n = 914. Control variables include age, raceethnicity, mothers education, fathers education, family income, family structure, welfare status, type of residential area, and region. a. Model 3 is not shown because no interaction effects are significant. b. Reference category is older sibling. c. Reference category is boys with a sister. d. Spend time with same friends as siblings is not shown, as it is insignificant in all models. *p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001 (two-tailed tests).

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Figure 1 Interaction of Feel Love for Siblings by Number of Siblings on Depressive Symptoms
0.85 Depressive Symptoms 0.8 0.75 0.7 0.65 0.6 1 Sibling 2 Siblings 3 Siblings

Never

Seldom Sometimes

Often

Very Often

Feel Love for Siblings

Figure 2 Interaction of Spend Time With Siblings by Step- or Half-Siblings on Depressive Symptoms
0.85 Depressive Symptoms 0.8 0.75 0.7 0.65 0.6 None Little Some A Lot Spend Time With Siblings Has Step- or Half-Siblings No Step- or Half-Siblings

friends as siblings only is negatively related to the depressive symptoms of adolescents with a twin. For other adolescents, spending time with the same friends as their siblings is positively related to depressive symptoms.

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Vogt Yuan / Sibling Relationships and Adolescents Mental Health 1237

Figure 3 Interaction of Spend Time With the Same Friends as Siblings by Has a Twin on Depressive Symptoms
0.85

Depressive Symptoms

0.8 0.75 0.7 0.65 0.6 None Little Some A Lot Spend Time With the Same Friends as Siblings

Has a Twin Does Not Have a Twin

Table 3 shows that among the sibling pairings, gender composition and age structure have few associations with adolescents mental health (Model 1). Younger siblings have lower positive well-being than older siblings. Girls with a brother have higher depressive symptoms than boys with a sister. The last result might be due to gender of the adolescent rather than gender composition of the sibling pair, because it seems to indicate that girls have higher depressive symptoms. Model 2 shows that adding sibling relationship quality has very little effect on the relationship between gender composition and age structure of siblings with adolescents mental health, except that same-age siblings now have lower positive well-being than older siblings once sibling relationship quality is controlled. For sibling relationship quality and adolescents mental health, results for the dyad sample (Model 2 of Table 3) are similar to the results for the full sample (Model 2 of Table 2). Some of the weaker associations are no longer significant, probably because of the smaller sample size of the dyad sample. For instance, spending time with siblings and feeling love for siblings are not significantly related to depressive symptoms. The interaction effects between sibling structure and sibling relationship quality for the dyad sample are also tested, indicating two significant interactions (as shown in Model 3 of Table 3). As shown in Figures 4 and 5, the respondents positive well-being is more responsive to spending time with siblings and quarreling or fighting with siblings

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1238 Journal of Family Issues

Figure 4 Interaction of Spend Time With Siblings by Gender Composition of Siblings on Positive Well-Being
2.7 Positive Well-Being 2.5 2.3 2.1 1.9 1.7 1.5 1.3 None Little Some A Lot Spend Time With Siblings Girls With a Sister Boys With a Brother Girls With a Brother Boys With a Sister

Figure 5 Interaction of Quarrel or Fight With Siblings by Gender Composition of Siblings on Positive Well-Being
2.7 Positive Well-Being 2.5 2.3 2.1 1.9 1.7 1.5 1.3
Never Seldom Sometimes Often Very Often

Girls With a Sister Boys With a Brother Girls With a Brother Boys With a Sister

Quarrel or Fight With Siblings

when both siblings are girls. Thus, not spending time with siblings is particularly detrimental for positive well-being when both siblings are girls, whereas spending time with siblings increases positive well-being more when both siblings are girls than for other gender configurations.

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Vogt Yuan / Sibling Relationships and Adolescents Mental Health 1239

Likewise, quarreling with siblings particularly decreases positive wellbeing when both siblings are girls. Finally, the results in Tables 2 and 3 also indicate the importance of school districtlevel and family-level clustering on adolescents mental health. The family-level clustering effects are significant for both of the mental health outcomes in the full sample and for depressive symptoms in the dyad sample. The school districtlevel clustering is only significant for positive well-being in both the full and dyad samples.

Discussion
Despite expectations, sibling structure (the number of siblings, full compared to step- or half-siblings, relative age of siblings, and gender composition of siblings) has little influence on adolescents mental health in this study. Because of this, sibling relationship quality does not appear to mediate the relationship between sibling structure and adolescents mental health. In a few cases, sibling relationship quality suppresses the influence of sibling structure on adolescents mental health. These findings indicate that even though sibling structure influences other aspects of adolescents well-being, such as deviance and educational achievement, sibling structure seems to have little significant independent association with adolescents mental health in this particular sample. Nevertheless, sibling structure still matters for adolescents mental health, because it moderates the relationship between sibling relationship quality and mental health. For instance, the number of siblings interacts with feeling love for siblings, decreasing depressive symptoms for adolescents with one sibling, and increasing depressive symptoms for adolescents with two or more siblings. This finding can be understood using resource dilution theory because it seems to indicate that sibling resources are diluted and may even become burdensome as the number of siblings increases. Alternatively, these results may simply indicate that sibling relationship quality increases adolescents well-being more if adolescents have fewer siblings. This alternative explanation may reflect a potential limitation of the analytic strategy. Because the measures for sibling relationship quality are averaged rather than added, the results may underestimate the effect of each additional sibling on adolescents mental health. Including the number of siblings in the model should correct for some but not all of these effects. Whether sibling relationships are full or step-/half-siblings also moderates the influence of sibling relationship quality on adolescents mental

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1240 Journal of Family Issues

health. Spending more time together benefits adolescents mental health more for step- or half-siblings than for full siblings. This result appears to be consistent with the theory of incomplete institutionalization by suggesting that relationships in blended families are more difficult to maintain and thus spending more time together is necessary to form and maintain sibling relationships in these types of families. However, this result might be specific to certain types of blended families. That is, spending time with stepor half-siblings may be beneficial in only those blended families that have been together for a longer duration. Future research should explore this alternative explanation for this finding. The findings of the study seem to indicate that the mental health of younger and older siblings is equally influenced by sibling relationship quality. That is, these results suggest that the bidirectional effects between younger and older siblings are equal rather than older siblings having a stronger effect on younger siblings. It should be noted, however, that social learning theory is meant to be applied to behavioral outcomes rather than mental health outcomes, so this study may not be an appropriate test of this theory. Having a twin interacted with sibling relationship quality in this particular sample. Adolescents with twins have fewer depressive symptoms when they spend more time with the same friends, whereas adolescents without twins have more depressive symptoms when they spend more time with the same friends. These results suggest that siblings benefit more from having separate lives with distinct groups of friends unless they have a twin. These results appear to be consistent with social comparison theory by indicating that the mental health of twins is more influenced than other siblings by sibling relationship quality. Finally, the gender composition of siblings moderates the association between sibling relationship quality and adolescents mental health. Two interactions indicate that spending time with siblings and quarreling with siblings have the strongest influence on positive well-being for girls with a sister in this particular sample. This finding may be understood using social comparison theory, which posits that sibling relationship quality should have a larger impact on the mental health of same-gender siblings than opposite-gender siblings; however, this relationship appears to only occur for girls with a sister but not for boys with a brother. This study is limited by using cross-sectional data, and thus the possibility of reverse causality cannot be ruled out. Because the first two waves of data in Add Health were collected only 1 year apart, mental health does not vary sufficiently across time to test the research questions longitudinally.

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Vogt Yuan / Sibling Relationships and Adolescents Mental Health 1241

The third wave of this data set was not used because the respondents were young adults by that time period, and thus the third-wave data do not address the research question of how sibling relationships influence well-being during adolescence. Reverse causality is unlikely to be a major problem because although mental health may influence sibling relationship quality, sibling structure predates both sibling relationship quality and mental health. This study also has limited ability to explore the associations between sibling structure, sibling relationship quality, and adolescents mental health in several ways. First, as only adolescents with siblings are included in these analyses, this study does not investigate differences between adolescents with and without siblings. Second, in the analyses of sibling dyads, the gender composition and relative age of siblings could only be linked for persons who had only one sibling, which limits the generalizability of these findings to adolescents with only one sibling. Furthermore, the analyses did not explore the interactions between various aspects of sibling structure but instead focused on the interrelationship between sibling structure and sibling relationship quality. For instance, future research can expand on this study by exploring whether the gender of step- or half-siblings affects adolescents mental health. Moreover, the analyses did not explore the influence of each sibling on adolescents mental health in multiple-sibling families, which impedes a complete understanding of the effects of specific sibling configurations. For example, adolescents may be influenced more by one extremely high-quality sibling relationship than by other weaker ones. Alternatively, one low-quality sibling relationship may be particularly detrimental for adolescents mental health. Future research should address these issues using data that indicates both the quality and the relative importance of each sibling relationship to the adolescent. In addition, although the measures of sibling relationship quality include perceptions of time spent together, feelings of love, and conflict and jealousy, these measures are somewhat limited because they are perceptual and do not measure the degree to which siblings interact in a positive or negative manner. Finally, these results apply to only two measures (one positive and one negative) of internalizing mental health and may not be applicable to other types of mental health outcomes, including externalizing disorders such as conduct disorders, substance use disorders, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and severe mental health disorders such as childhood bipolar disorder. Future research should explore these issues using more extensive measures of sibling relationship quality and additional mental health outcomes. In conclusion, contrary to most theories of sibling structure, this study finds that sibling structure is not associated with adolescents mental health,

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1242 Journal of Family Issues

and thus sibling relationship quality does not appear to mediate the relationship between sibling structure and adolescents mental health. Instead, sibling structure moderates the association between sibling relationship quality and adolescents mental health. Thus, neither sibling relationship quality nor sibling structure predominates. Instead, these factors are interconnected in their association with adolescents mental health and should be explored together.

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