Studies Show That Having Sisters Can Make You A Better Person
July 17, 2019
If you have a sister, you’ve probably yelled at her for stealing your clothes, trying to hangout with your friends, or if she’s older, trying to mother you. Siblings tend to have very complex relationships with their sisters, but as it turns out, these are some of the most valuable relationships in terms of personal development.
“[Sisters] help you develop social skills like communication, compromise, and negotiation,” revealed Alex Jensen, assistant professor at the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. “Even sibling conflict, if it is minor, can promote healthy development,” Jensen continued.
But there’s a lot more. A 2010 study published in the Journal of Family Psychology revealed that having a sister can help increase self-esteem and better your mental health. Researchers from Brigham Young University discovered that sisters help protect their siblings from “feeling lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious, and fearful.”
The same study revealed that sisters can help their siblings to become kinder, more compassionate, and more generous people. This is because sisters tend to display compassion and other positive social behaviors when they show emotion and affection to other people. This is something that siblings cannot always receive from parental relationships, no matter how loving or stable they may be.
There are additional studies that also link having a sister to independence, remaining calm in stressful situations, improved communication skills, and demonstrating empathy towards others. Of course, sisters are also lucky to have brothers. On the other hand, brothers can teach their sisters many aspects of personality development that others cannot.
Moral of the story? Both brothers and sisters can learn a lot from one another. Growing up with siblings shapes us into who we are as adults, which is something to be noted. So hug your siblings a little tighter the next time you see them, and recognize that they’re majorly responsible for making you into the person you are today.