Maternal Labeling of Gifted Children: Effects on the Sibling Relationship

The present study examined the impact of maternal labeling of children as gifted on the sibling relationship. Subjects were 144 pairs of firstborn and secondborn siblings classified according to maternal perceptions into one of four groups: both gifted, firstborn gifted, secondborn gifted, or neither gifted. Five aspects of the sibling relationship were examined: Warmth/Closeness, Status/Power, Conflict, Maternal Partiality, and Paternal Partiality. Results indicated that unlabeled children generally did not view the sibling relationship more negatively than their labeled siblings. However, there was consistent evidence of labeling effects which interacted with birth order. Maternal labeling of firstborn children was associated with greater Warmth/Closeness in the sibling relationship, but maternal labeling of secondborn children appeared to have the opposite effect of reduced Warmth/Closeness.