Sibling Training Hypothesis: Alcohol Use Behaviors Among Three Adolescent Siblings

The sibling training hypothesis posits that younger siblings will come to resemble older siblings but has not been tested across three adolescent sibling dyads. In paired t-tests, sibling training was assessed across three sibling dyads (N = 102 families, 306 adolescents, Add Health data set, Waves 1 and 2). Evidence for drinking training appeared in the oldest/middle sibling dyad but not in dyads involving the youngest sibling. In latent congruence modeling, significant predictors of sibling drinking similarity included drinking by friends in the oldest/middle and oldest/youngest dyads. Research beyond the study of a single sibling dyad in a family is needed to better understand the generalizability of social influences, how they come about as well as consequences for adolescents and their families.