This research looks into the effect of the mother’s object relations on the different
manifestations of sibling conflicts. Through direct observation, the research tries to find how
different levels of the mother’s object relations can affect the ways she intervenes in the sibling
conflicts and their strategies to resolve these conflicts. Research subjects were thirty-three pairs
of brotherly siblings around the ages of three to five and their mothers. Observations of family
interactions were done in the play therapy rooms in Hannam University. The evaluation method
used to measure the mother’s object relations level was based on the evaluative interview
developed by Bellack and his colleagues (1973). Bellack’s self-reporting assessment
questionnaire has forty-five questions (Bell, Billington, & Becker , 1986). The questionnaire used
in the research is the adapted version (Boo-young Park, 2000) with some revisions made to it.
The tasks employed to incite sibling conflicts were the same tasks used in Sora Park’s research
(2001).
The results of this research are as follows. First, in groups with high level of the mother’s
object relations, the mothers were most likely to use reasonable methods when intervening in
sibling rivalry. The brothers also in turn were most likely to rely on constructive methods to
resolve disputes. As for the resolution of conflicts, the mother’s intervention led to the end of
arguments most often in groups with high level of object relations. Second, according to the
mother’s level of object relations, the mother’s intervention affected the resolution methods used
by the children themselves.