Abstract: Sibling conflict is defined as the incompatibility expressed by two or more people with the same biological parents in their behaviors, goals or activities in a intact family, which is usually characterized by quarrels and hostility, as well as aggression against each other. The styles of parents’ intervention in sibling conflict usually can be divided into child-centered strategies, control strategies, and nonintervention strategies. Family system theory points out that the family is viewed as a hierarchically organized system, comprised of reciprocally influential subsystems (e.g. marital relationships, parent-child relationships, sibling relationships). Based on this theory, the effects of family subsystem on sibling conflict is discussed, and meanwhile, in order to analyze the mechanism of sibling conflict from the multi-path perspective, the theoretical hypothesis model of sibling conflict is constructed. Future studies need to distinguish or integrate between sibling conflict and its related concepts, focus on what factors will affect the styles parents intervene in sibling conflict, and treat sibling conflict from the perspective of development.

Key words: sibling conflict, sibling relationship, intervention style, family subsystem, influence pathway