First-born siblings engage in leadership and teaching roles, whereas second-born siblings
are more likely to imitate, follow and be a learner. Although older sisters are more likely to engage in caretaking roles than older brothers, there are few consistent gender or age gap differences in sibling relations in early childhood. As second-born siblings become more cognitively, linguistically and socially competent over the early years, they begin to take on more active roles in sibling interactions, for example by initiating more games.16 As such, the early power imbalance that exists between siblings seems to become less relevant as siblings age, and interactions become more equitable