Abstract
Purpose. This study investigated the relationship between the self-concept of preadolescent siblings and their perception of three specific factors in the family environment. These factors--control, achievement orientation, and cohesion--were identified in the research literature as important to personality formation in preadolescence. This study, unlike previous research in this area, has matched preadolescents on family environment by utilizing siblings, creating a comparison of siblings' perceptions of the same environment in relation to self-concept.Procedure. Twenty-seven pairs of preadolescent siblings were administered two self-report inventories--one designed to measure self-concept (Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale); and the other, perceived family environment (Family Environment Scale). Subjects were voluntary private school students who were between the ages of 9 and 12 at the time of testing. A Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to assess the relationship between preadolescent siblings' self-concept. A multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures compared siblings of higher and lower self-concept on their perceptions of family control, achievement orientation, and cohesion. Composite scores were derived for the predictor and criterion variables by averaging scores across sibling pairs, and then a multiple regression was employed to determine the extent to which self-concept could be predicted based upon the linear combination of the predictor variables.Review of the Findings. No significant correlation was found between the self-concept of preadolescent siblings. Preadolescents higher in self-concept perceived a greater degree of family cohesion than their lower self-concept siblings, but there were no differences in perceptions of control and achievement orientation. Family cohesion was also the only family factor that was a statistically significant predictor for self-concept in the multiple regression analysis.Conclusions and Discussion. This study explored the relationship between the self-concept and three factors in the family environment from a unique perspective: utilizing sibling pairs. Siblings' perceptions of family control and achievement orientation are similar, but perceptions of family cohesion discriminate higher from lower self-concept in preadolescent siblings whose self-concepts are already in the average or high average range. In this group, siblings of higher self-concept perceive greater family cohesion.