Inspired by the impact her sister has had on her life, Christy Rogers leads a research program studying the effects of sibling relationships on teen and adolescent development.

Growing up, Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences  Christy Rogers always had her older sister to lean on. With her sibling study, Rogers is now looking to understand how teenagers develop healthy regulation skills in the family context.

“My work is truly inspired by my sister, who's six years older than me,” Rogers said. “If it wasn't for her, I would not have gone to college. I don't think I would have such a healthy state of mind or have really chosen amazing people to be my friends and my partner. She modeled these really great skills for me and has been a constant source of support for me throughout my life.” 

Rogers explains that through adolescence, there are various changes in the cognitive, biological and social parts of life. Knowing this, she chose to research how siblings could be a resource to teens experiencing these shifts. 

“My program of research examines how teenagers develop in the family context,” Rogers said. “And of special interest to me is sibling relationships, because they're oftentimes our longest lifelong companions.”

The visits begin with 51 families of two teenagers and one parent or guardian filling out questionnaires about their perceptions of themselves, their world, their family and overall well-being. Then, the teens participate in games and tests while also being videotaped for observations on their non-verbal communication. The younger teen also completes a neuro-imaging scan while they rewatch the video of them and their older sibling trying to resolve conflict.

“This is all to look at how teens are developing regulation skills,” Rogers said, “and how their siblings may be supporting, or in some cases, making regulation difficult for these teens.”

Initial findings have shown teens who feel supported by their sibling are less likely to have negative outcomes such as depressive, anxious, or problematic eating symptoms when facing adversity. 

“In several different preliminary studies, we have seen that siblings are kind of providing this buffering effect to help teens navigate these changes,” Rogers said, “and to maintain kind of a positive well-being and also good mental health.” 

Rogers admitted she found a need to research teen development in connection to sibling relationships when searching Google Scholar and discovering roughly only 5% of studies examining social influences on adolescence focused on siblings, which she felt was disproportionate to the number of Americans who have siblings. 

“You see siblings every single day as a teenager, and you spend a lot of voluntary and involuntary time with them,” Rogers said. “And so I think it's important in terms of research for us to really understand the good and bad influence that they can have as teens are growing up.” 

Rogers and her team were able to meet with each of the families twice while the younger teen is in middle school. Rogers hopes to continue visiting with these families beyond the younger teen’s middle school years and is working to receive the necessary grants. 

This research was made possible through startup funds given to new faculty. Rogers said these funds gave the opportunity to include eight graduate students and 20 undergraduate students to contribute to the sibling study, including support from the College of Health and Human Sciences, the TrUE Transformers Program, and the College to Career Program.

“I am incredibly grateful for both the support and the amazing work of the trainees,” Rogers said, “as this study would not have been possible without them.”

The trainees were funded while gaining experience in various fields of science such as neuroscience, sociology and developmental psychology throughout the duration of their time with the study.

“They got to work with the families, they got to help design the study and they also got to help manage the data, and so some of them are in graduate school now," Rogers said. “For undergrads, it's been an amazing opportunity for them.”

Rogers hopes with this research they will be able to see what aspects of the family dynamic are impactful to promote positive behaviors in teens to help them succeed. 

“Teens are amazing,” Rogers said. “They're incredibly resilient, and this is a time where they can really master certain hobbies and interests and advocate for what they truly care about. So, I want to empower them to let them know that they are important. They can do amazing things.”