The Unbreakable Bond: Siblings’ Lasting Impressions, Explained By Science

Remember that time when you drew on your sister’s homework (textbooks included) and afterwards she still read your favorite bedtime story? Or that other time your brother gave your favorite doll a haircut? No? What about when he taught you how to ride a bike, or the time the three of you rode bikes to the nearest convenience store and bought boxes of mac and cheese to cook your parents a “gourmet” anniversary dinner?

We’re betting that you do. For most people, their relationships with siblings — or their sibling-like relationships — will be the longest, and arguably the most important ones in life. Parents inevitably play less central roles as you get older, and spouses and children enter much later in life. Not many influences will have as lasting an impact on identity or life trajectory as a brother or sister’s.

We’ve partnered with Johnson & Johnson to explain three major ways in which siblings enormously impact one another.

While siblings provide a built-in social structure, children without siblings are not at a complete loss. They engage with friends more and develop their social skills from interactions with peers in school or extracurricular activities.

So whether you have one sibling, seven, or even none, these types of relationships are integral to development. Next time you see your eldest child teasing the younger, consider taking a step back and let nature take its course.

The Huffington Post