Sibling Relationship Quality and the Subjective Well-Being of Adolescents with Differing Levels of Personality Pathology

Abstract

How siblings influence development of adolescents with personality pathology has received little attention. Yet, sibling relationships may be especially salient, as these adolescents may have difficulty separating from the family. The current study investigated how sibling relationship quality affected subjective well-being of adolescents with differing levels of personality pathology. Moreover, the impact of maladaptive personality domains on this link was explored. Two studies were conducted, utilizing a community (N = 311, Mage = 14.58, SDage = 1.17) and a clinical sample (N = 156, Mage = 20.27, SDage = 2.23). It was expected that higher sibling support and lower sibling conflict were related to higher subjective well-being, and that this link would be affected by adolescents’ scores on maladaptive personality domains. Adolescents completed self-report measures. Lower levels of conflict predicted higher levels of subjective well-being in the community and the clinical sample. Higher levels of support predicted higher levels of subjective well-being only in the clinical sample. The link between relationship quality and subjective well-being was not dependent on scores on maladaptive personality domains. Thus, regarding subjective well-being, adolescents from both populations may benefit from reducing sibling conflict, while adolescents from clinical samples may also benefit from promoting sibling support.