It turns out that sisters could teach each other a lot about conflict, empathy, resolution, and nurture.
According to research, having sisters is very beneficial, even though it may be difficult to believe this when she’s borrowing your clothes for the 10th time.
According to Alex Jensen, assistant professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University and the author of sibling research, sisters help us develop vital social skills such as communication, negotiation, and compromise.
Minor conflicts can also be good for our health, she adds.
Having a Sister Is Great, Here’s Why
- Better our mental health
According to a study from 2010, having a sister can better our mental health and boost our self-esteem. Sisters help keep siblings safe from feeling guilt, loneliness, fear, and less self-consciousness.
Later in life, they often do more to ensure the families stay in contact with one another after the parents are no longer with them.
- Make us more compassionate
Sisters make us kinder and more giving people since they help us increase our altruism and compassion when we show love and affection. Despite some fighting, if there’s affection, the positive will surface out.
When siblings get into a fight, they need to regulate their feelings, which is a vital skill for adult life.
- Help develop interpersonal skills
Sisters can teach us a lot about empathy, nurture, and conflict resolution. They can be pivotal in helping us learn how to handle arguments or mitigate situations when you’re communicating with your “combative” older sister.
A younger sibling who needs our guidance will boost our nurture and empathy, explains Jeffrey Kluger, author of The Sibling Effect.
- Help us be more ambitious and independent
According to a survey done by British psychologists back in 2009, people who were raised with at least one sister had more determination and independence than those who had only brothers.
Tony Cassidy from the University of Ulster explains that this is a result of the desire to want to be better every time and to accomplish goals and there’s also something about the family where there are several girls who encourage each other to do more and be more independent.
- Teach us about balance
The same study also concluded that sisters help their siblings achieve inner piece. Those with at least one sister were found more capable of addressing life problems and experienced less stress and consequently, were happier and more optimistic than those without a sister.
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