Sibling Abuse

972 Words2 Pages

This article, written by Amber L. Mackey, Mary Ellen Fromuth, and David B. Kelly, discusses a 2010 study that was done to figure out if a negative emotional relationship between siblings can cause later psychological problems. The study consisted of multiple men and women that filled out self-report questionnaires of sibling abuse, self-labeling of sibling abuse, quality of sibling relationships, depression, and anxiety (Fromuth, Kelly, & Mackey, 2010). After completing the study, the researchers found that there were a variety of differences between the amounts of reported abuse, depending on how much or what kind of sibling abuse took place (Fromuth, Kelly, & Mackey, 2010). Before discussing the study and the results found from it, the authors …show more content…

Hines and Malley-Morrison argue that physical violence between siblings is the most frequent form of family violence (2006, p. 331). They reported that 800 out of every 1,000 children performed a violent act towards their sibling in the previous year (Hines & Malley-Morrison, 2006, p. 331). This is equivalent to 50.4 million children who are violent with their sibling (Hines & Malley-Morrison, 2006, p. 331). As far as the online article, it was reported that emotional aggression is more common amongst siblings than physical aggression (Fromuth, Kelly, & Mackey, 2010). There was a study done with college students who reported whether or not they had a sibling who was emotionally aggressive with them or not (Fromuth, Kelly, & Mackey, 2010). The results of this study found that 89% of men and 98% of women reported that they were, in fact, emotionally maltreated by their sibling (Fromuth, Kelly, & Mackey, …show more content…

This progression of anxiety has a huge impact on the individual’s development. According to Hines and Malley-Morrison, sibling maltreatment can result in the sibling to suffer with conduct disorders, attention deficit disorder, drug abuse, adjustment disorder, social phobia, dysthymia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and learning disabilities (2006, p. 338). Fromuth, Kelly, and Mackey support this idea by also stating that anxiety has been seen in individuals who have dealt with sibling maltreatment (2010). There was a study involving college undergraduate students showing that women who had siblings who were abusive towards them, had increased levels of anxiety compared to students who did not have abusive siblings (Fromuth, Kelly, & Mackey,

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