What causes sibling rivalry?
There are many factors that contribute to sibling rivalry: • Each child is competing to define who they are as an individual. As they discover who they are, they try to find their own talents, activities, and interests. They want to show that they are separate from their siblings. • Children feel they are getting unequal amounts of your attention, discipline, and responsiveness. • Children may feel their relationship with their parents is threatened by the arrival of a new baby. • Your children’s developmental stages will affect how mature they are and how well they can share your attention and get along with one another. • Children who are hungry, bored or tired are more likely to become frustrated and start fights. • Children may not know positive ways to get attention from or start playful activities with a brother or sister, so they pick fights instead. • Family dynamics play a role. For example, one child may remind a parent of a relative who was particularly difficult, and this m
