This comprehensive Handbook will change the current mindset about sibling relationships—from a relationship of secondary importance to parent-child relationships—to one that reflects the many ways siblings contribute to individual development and family functioning throughout the life course and across diverse cultural contexts. As it presents the growing body of research on sibling relationships, it offers a new sibling-informed theoretical framework that challenges traditional notions of the sibling bond as one based on hostility, rivalry, and conflict. New directions are offered for research and practice that will address the real needs of families. This Handbook is relevant to all researchers and mental health practitioners.

This comprehensive Handbook will change the current mindset about sibling relationships—from a relationship of secondary importance to parent-child relationships—to one that reflects the many ways siblings contribute to individual development and family functioning throughout the life course and across diverse cultural contexts. As it presents the growing body of research on sibling relationships, it offers a new sibling-informed theoretical framework that challenges traditional notions of the sibling bond as one based on hostility, rivalry, and conflict. New directions are offered for research and practice that will address the real needs of families. This Handbook is relevant to all researchers and mental health practitioners.

This comprehensive Handbook will change the current mindset about sibling relationships—from a relationship of secondary importance to parent-child relationships—to one that reflects the many ways siblings contribute to individual development and family functioning throughout the life course and across diverse cultural contexts. As it presents the growing body of research on sibling relationships, it offers a new sibling-informed theoretical framework that challenges traditional notions of the sibling bond as one based on hostility, rivalry, and conflict. New directions are offered for research and practice that will address the real needs of families. This Handbook is relevant to all researchers and mental health practitioners.