Introduction

Children are involved in a great variety of relationships, with members of previous generations, such as parents (see Kreppner, Chapter 4 of this volume), grandparents, or other relatives (see Kaiser, Chapter 7 of this volume), and with members of their own generation. Among these “other children” the most important are the child's own siblings, with whom about two-thirds of the children in Western countries still grow up. Apart from these, there are the children whom the child meets outside the family, for example on the street and the playground, in kindergarten and at school, in scouts' groups and leisure activity circles. In the following, these nonrelated, similar-aged children will be called peers. Children learn counting rhymes and games, rules and principles, and expectations and norms valid in the childhood world from their peers and siblings (e.g., Opie & Opie, 1970).

This chapter makes comparisons between children's relationships with peers and with siblings. As inequality in age, and thus in power too, is a prominent characteristic in sibling relationships during childhood, the comparison is restricted to clarifying the aspect of symmetry and asymmetry in these two social relationships between children. Comparisons will be made on two levels: first, on the level of face-to-face interactions; secondly, on the level of relationships. Relationships and interactions are not viewed as on the same level because, even in symmetrically structured relationships, children sometimes behave asymmetrically or complementarily with each other.