We learn a lot in a sibling relationship; how to share, take our place in a hierarchy, negotiate, and for some, being bullied. Sibling relationships range from highly positive and supportive to very negative, with warmer and more harmonious sibling relationships associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing problems in childhood and adolescence and a decrease in later delinquent behaviour and substance abuse. Exposure to hostile, aggressive and conflictual sibling relationships have been linked to anxiety, poor peer relationships, and antisocial conduct. The survival skills developed in a chronically abusive sibling relationship may spill into other facets of life yet are often dismissed as normal and an ordinary part of childhood.
Other factors linked to sibling aggression include exposure to violence in both the community and within the family with children exposed to intimate partner violence more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviours to parents, peers, and siblings. One study suggested that the magnitude of the association between exposure to intimate partner violence and children’s externalizing symptoms strengthened over time. However, research in this domain has been limited to single informant methods, based on retrospective reports by young adults, population-based parent reports, or interviews with mothers. Less attention has been paid to the experience of siblings and how this unfolds over time.
A Broader Perspective on Sibling Aggression and Intimate Partner Violence
Piotrowski et. al. (2021) were eager to broaden understanding of siblings exposed to intimate partner violence by including the perspectives of mother, observers, and the children. They were interested to assess overall stability and change in aggression over time, the role of warmth in both sibling and parent -child relationships and sex differences in the sibling dyad in expression of aggression.
Forty-seven families with a history of intimate partner violence participated in the study with data collected on two occasions, eight months apart. Both mothers and children self-reported on violence and warmth between parents and children and within the sibling dyad. Children were also observed during a thirty-minute unstructured play time and the results coded by observers for incidents of aggression.
What Were the Results?
Both self-report and observational measures showed stability of aggressive behaviour over time. The warmth of relationships from mother to chid and between siblings showed mixed results with only children’s reports of sibling warmth being predictive of later observed aggression. Older siblings’ perception of warmth at the first data collection time was directly predictive with the explanation that older siblings who are kindly disposed may manage their behaviour better with more positive role modelling, greater warmth, and more positive interactions, with younger siblings following the older child’s lead. While brother dyads showed more aggression than sisters or mixed pairs at first observation this was not stable over time. This may reflect the small data set.
What Does This Mean for Clinical Practice?
Intimate partner violence can be so distressing and obvious effects wide ranging that it is easy to be distracted from symptoms that appear more ordinary or normal. Sibling violence is one of these. However, the long-term benefits of directly addressing factors within the whole system that maintain these behaviours and the benefits of addressing them with the support of the whole family cannot be underestimated.
Piotrowski, C., Cameranes, M. Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence: Stability & Change in Sibling Aggression Over Time Journal of Child and Family Studies (2021) 30:650–662 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01910-w
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