All in the Family? Family Environment Factors in Sibling Violence

J Fam Viol (2006) 21:497507 DOI 10.1007/s10896-006-9048-9

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

All in the Family? Family Environment Factors in Sibling Violence

Shelley Eriksen Vickie Jensen

Published online: 30 November 2006

C

Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006

Abstract Sibling violence is presumed to be the most common form of family violence and the least studied. Based on data from Physical Violence in American Families, 1976, this paper assesses the family environment factors associated with sibling physical violence. Of a range of potential family inuences, measures of family disorganization were the most signicant predictors of sibling violence, overriding the characteristics of children or particular family demands. What mattered most to the occurrence of sibling violence was a childs actual experience of physical violence at the hands of a parent, maternal disciplinary practices and whether husbands lose their temper. These ndings point to the deleterious effect of corporal punishment, and suggest sibling violence in families is associated with more ominous family and gender dynamics.

Keywords Sibling violence . Physical aggression . Sibling abuse . Childhood and adolescence . Sibling conict . Family violence/abuse . Family environment . Corporal punishment

Introduction

Sibling violence is the least studied form of family violence, but is likely the most prevalent. Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz

S. Eriksen ([envelopeback])

The Human Development Program and the Department of Sociology, California State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellower Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90840, USA e-mail: [email protected]

V. JensenDepartment of Sociology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA 91330, USA

(1980) were the rst to call attention to sibling violence as a widespread and problematic phenomenon. Based on ndings from their survey Physical Violence in American Families, 1976, they suggested that the sibling relationship, rather than the husband/wife or parent/child dyad, was the more likely milieu in which a family member might be victimized. When applied to the nations estimated 36.3 million children ages 317 in their survey year, Straus and Gelles extrapolated that over 29 million American children engage in one or more acts of physical violence toward a sibling (Straus et al., 1980).

Although the prevalence of sibling abuse in childhood has yet to be systematically explored using more recent, representative data, a limited amount of clinical research suggests that sibling violence can be associated with severe emotional and...