ABSTRACT
Sibling interactions offer countless opportunities to practice empathic behavior and learn about emotional expression of others. In line, various studies have examined links between sibling relationships and empathy. Aiming to provide a systematic overview of this field of research, this meta-analysis synthesizes studies and evaluates their quality. It provides overall estimates of the strength of associations between empathy and sibling status, quality of the relationship, and presence of a sibling with a disability or illness, and explores sources of heterogeneity in effect sizes. To this end, 118 effect sizes from 26 samples reporting on n = 6665 participants (aged 10 months to 81 years) were included in the quantitative analysis. Additionally, findings of nine qualitative studies with a total of 101 participants were summarized. Sibling relationship quality was positively linked to greater empathy (r = 0.25), and higher levels of empathy were observed in individuals who have a sibling with a disability or illness (r = 0.10). Only children did not differ in empathy, which suggests that siblings are just one of many pathways that benefit empathy development. Overall, the field would benefit from more longitudinal studies and studies that include broader family dynamics to capture the complexity of early social development.