More detail on the child’s relationship with their siblings

A recommendation to asking additional questions on the child’s relationship with their

sibling arises mainly from the consultations with parents and young children.

However, there are not many examples to draw on from otherwise comparable

studies. Consideration could be given to extending the basic questions previously

included for Cohort 08 at 3 by adapting a set of questions later asked of 13-year-

olds. Those questions were originally adapted from a measure used by the ALSPAC

study and cover both negative and positive interactions with siblings (from the child’s

perspective) such as pushing and shoving or, conversely, playing sports and games

together. The items could potentially be re-worded to be answered by the parent.

Recommendation for Cohort 24 at age 3:

•Extend the questions on sibling relationships to capture more information about specific positive and negative interactions. Consideration could be given to adapting questions previously asked of children in Cohort 08 at 13, to be asked of the primary caregiver.

Number of friends child has