Spanish validation of the Parental Expectations and Perceptions of Children's Sibling Relationships Questionnaire

• Published date: 01 July 2023
• Author: Gemma López‐Fernández,Juana Gómez‐Benito,Laurie Kramer,Maite Barrios
• Date: 01 July 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12699

RESEARCH

Spanish validation of the Parental Expectations

and Perceptions of Children’s Sibling

Relationships Questionnaire

Gemma L

opez-Fern

andez

1,2

|Juana G

omez-Benito

1,3

|

Laurie Kramer

4,5

|Maite Barrios

1,3

1

Department of Social Psychology and

Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of

Psychology, University of Barcelona,

Barcelona, Spain

2

Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics,

Corporaci

o Sanitaria Parc Taulí, Sabadell,

Barcelona, Spain

3

Group on Measurement Invariance and

Analysis of Change, Institute of Neurosciences,

University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

4

Department of Applied Psychology,

Northeastern University, Boston,

Massachusetts, United States

5

Department of Human Development and

Family Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana,

Illinois, United States

Correspondence

Gemma L

opez-Fern

andez: Department of

Gynecology and Obstetrics, Corporaci

o

Sanitaria Parc Taulí, Parc del Taulí 1, 08208

Sabadell, Barcelona, Spain.

Email: glopez@tauli.cat

Funding information

This work was supported by the Agency for

the Management of University and Research

Grants of the Government of Catalonia (grant

no. 2017SGR1681).

Abstract

Objective: To translate and culturally adapt the Parental

Expectations and Perceptions of Children’s Sibling Rela-

tionship Questionnaire (PEPC-SRQ; Kramer & Baron,

1995) into Spanish and test its psychometric properties.

Background: Sibling relationships contribute significantly

to child development; however, to date, no study has

validated an instrument to assess the quality of children’s

sibling relationships with Spanish samples.

Method: We conducted two studies. In Study 1, the instru-

ment underwent translation and back-translation along

with the inspection of semantic, linguistic, and contextual

equivalence. In Study 2, the validity of the instrument

scores was assessed by administering the translated PEPC-

SRQ to 229 mothers in Spain.

Results: The Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a two-

factor structure that preserved the original 24 items. Both

factors presented good internal consistency and were

significantly correlated with other constructs.

Conclusion: These results support the use of the PEPC-SRQ

in Spain.

Implications: The Spanish PEPC-SRQ may now be used as a

tool for the early detection of conflictual relationships between

siblings and as a tool for assessing the effectiveness of targeted

strategies designed to bolster children’s sibling relationships.

Additionally, this adaptation provides the opportunity to

carry out cross-cultural studies.

Received: 5 May 2021Revised: 3 October 2021Accepted: 20 February 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12699

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,

distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

1220 Family Relations. 2023;72:1220–1236.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

KEYWORDS

cultural adaptation, exploratory factor analysis, measurement

instrument, psychometric properties, sibling relationship quality, sibling

rivalry, sibling warmth

The relationship between siblings is one of the most enduring relationships of an individual’s

life span, starting at birth and continuing until death (Relva et al., 2017). It is a unique relation-

ship, characterized by both love and warmth as well as by conflict and rivalry (Buist

et al., 2013) and contributes significantly to child development, for example, by promoting the

development of social skills, social understanding, and identity formation (Ma et al., 2017).

Despite the importance of this relationship, few instruments measure the quality of the relation-

ship between siblings during the childhood and preschool years (Volling & Blandon, 2003).

Most measures of sibling relationship quality are based on assessments of siblings’perceptions

during adolescence (e.g., Derkman et al., 2010; Furman & Buhrmester, 1985; Relva et al., 2017;

Stocker & McHale, 1992), which is not a developmentally appropriate approach for evaluating

the relationship during the first years of children’s lives.

Currently, no validated instrument exists in Spanish to assess parents’perceptions of sibling

relationship quality during early childhood. Having a validated instrument in Spanish that

reliably measures the quality of sibling relationships in early childhood is essential given the

influence this relationship has on children’s development and on the family system throughout

the life course (Cox, 2010; Oliva & Arranz, 2005). Warm and cooperative relationships between

siblings can contribute positively to children’s social and emotional development, whereas hos-

tile and aggressive sibling relationships can be a risk factor for the development of behavior

problems, which can inhibit children’s social competence with their peers when they enter

school (Volling, 2017). Likewise, sibling relationships marked by high levels of hostility and

emotional distancing have been related to poorer family interactions, including high levels of

conflict and dissatisfaction between parents and differential or hostile treatment of parents

toward their children. That is, the quality of fraternal relationships affects, and is affected by,

the quality of other relationships within the family system (Gamble & Yu, 2014).

Early detection of sibling relationships with low warmth and elevated levels of conflict and

hostility will facilitate the design of effective interventions, such as those that train parents in

behavioral management techniques specifically targeting areas of need (Dirks et al., 2015).

However, to accomplish this, an instrument must be available that validly and reliably assesses

the quality of children’s sibling relationships. In the current study, we investigated the reliability

and validity of such a measure for use with Spanish mothers.

Kramer and Baron initially developed the Parental Expectations and Perceptions of Chil-

dren’s Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (PEPC-SRQ; Kramer, 2001; Kramer & Baron, 1995)

to assess parents’perceptions of sibling relationship quality during the preschool years through

early andmiddle childhood(from2 to8 years old).Three dimensionsof siblingrelationship

quality are assessed using parents’responses to 24 items that represent a wide range of behav-

iors that could be exhibited between a sibling pair: (a) Warmth, defined as the positive aspects

of sibling relationship, which may include mutual intimacy, companionship, prosocial behavior,

and affection; (b) Agonism, defined as a set of negative interactions including conflict

(i.e., mutual opposition between siblings) and forms of negative affect; and (c) Rivalry/Competi-

tion, defined as competition, rivalry, and jealousy.

Kramer and Baron (1995) conceptualized parents’perceptions of their children’s sibling

relationship quality not only as a direct measure of their observations of how well their children

were getting along (i.e., the frequency of positive and negative behaviors), but also in terms of

the degree to which children were behaving in ways that they desired or expected. That is,

whereas many parents may expect siblings to engage in a great deal of conflict and may not be

THE SPANISH Pepc-Srq1221