Boardash: Siblings are 'agents of socialization'

Friday, January 22, 2010

Siblings are 'agents of socialization'

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Siblings are 'agents of socialization'

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (UPI) -- A parent's influence on a child's development shouldn't be underestimated but neither should a sibling's, U.S. researchers say.

Laurie Kramer, a professor of applied family studies at the University of Illinois said parents are better at teaching the social niceties of more formal settings -- how to act in public, how not to embarrass oneself at the dinner table, for example. However, siblings are better role models of the more informal behaviors such as how to act at school or on the street or, perhaps most important, how to act cool around friends.

"Siblings are closer to the social environments that children find themselves in during the majority of their day, which is why it's important not to overlook the contributions that they make on who we end up being," Kramer says in a statement. "We know that having a positive relationship with siblings is related to a whole host of better outcomes for teenagers and adults."

The same holds true for other behaviors as well. For example, a female teen is at higher risk for getting pregnant if her older sister was a teenage mother, Kramer says.

Kramer and Katherine J. Conger of the University of California at Davis co-edited a volume on siblings for a recent issue of the journal New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development.

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Abuse as child ups risk of abuse as adult

MONTREAL (UPI) -- A child who is sexually abused has a higher risk of being a victim of abuse as an adult, researchers in Canada found.

Professor Isabelle Daigneault of the University of Montreal conducted a study of 9,170 women and 7,823 men throughout Canada to correlate the likelihood of young victims becoming adult victims of sexual or physical abuse.

The study, published in The International Journal of Child Abuse & Neglect, found female survivors of childhood sexual abuse are three to four times more likely than others to be victims of physical or sexual abuse as adults.

Male survivors of childhood sexual abuse are three times more likely to be victims of physical abuse as men. However, too few men reported sexual abuse as adults to establish a statistically significant correlation, Daigneault said.

"It's the first time that we combine data on sexual abuse during childhood and eventual relationship problems," Daigneault said in a statement.

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Concussion terminology change urged

HAMILTON, Ontario (UPI) -- Canadian researchers suggest doctors use the term "mild traumatic brain injury" instead of concussion because people do not seem to take concussions seriously.

The study, to be published in the journal Pediatrics in February, found children who receive the concussion label returned to school sooner than their counterparts diagnosed as having mild head injuries. Returning to activities too quickly puts patients at greater risk for a second injury and poor performance, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton said.

"Our study suggests that if a child is given a diagnosis of a concussion, the family is less likely to consider it an actual injury to the brain," study leader Carol DeMatteo said in a statement.

DeMatteo and colleagues analyzed medical records for 434 children admitted to McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton during a two-year period with acquired brain injury.

Of the 341 children with traumatic brain injury, 300 children had a severity score recorded using a system that provides an overall score for patients with multiple injuries, and out of that group 32 percent received a diagnosis of concussion.

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