"You can do nasty things to your brothers and sisters without a reason": Siblings' Backstage Behaviour

Citation

Punch S (2008) "You can do nasty things to your brothers and sisters without a reason": Siblings' Backstage Behaviour. Children and Society, 22 (5), pp. 333-344. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2007.00119.x

Abstract
This paper contributes to the recent, but still limited, literature on the sociology of sibship. It argues that during childhood the ambivalent love/hate nature of sibship is played out through the sharing of knowledge, time and space. It draws on the work of Goffman to illustrate that children's sibling interactions tend to consist of backstage, rather than frontstage, performances. The paper is based on children's own perspectives from a sample of 90 children aged 5-17 drawn from 30 families of mixed socio-economic backgrounds in central Scotland.

Keywords
children; siblings; backstage; Goffman; Sibling Relations; Rural children Social conditions Cross-cultural studies; Goffman, Erving

Journal
Children and Society: Volume 22, Issue 5

People

Professor Samantha Punch

Professor, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology