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SIBLING ABUSE ARTICLE IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL

Sibling abuse (or intersibling abuse) is the physical, psychological, and/or sexual abuse of one sibling by another. A fourth category that brought attention from researchers, such as Stauffacher & DeHart and Card, Stucky, Sawalani, & Little, during the first decade of the 21st century is sibling relational abuse which derives from relational aggression.

Sibling violence and sibling abuse are different. Violence among siblings happens when both siblings use any type of aggression, the power relationship is equally balanced and both siblings have the purpose of harming the other one. Sibling abuse is characterized by one of them having more power over the other one, either physically or emotionally, and using it with the purpose of intimidating, terrorizing or controlling the other one. Researchers have found different negative psychological and social consequences of sibling aggression and abuse but causal inference requires more study. However, sibling abuse requires the same level of attention as other types of family abuse and reporting, assessment and treatment need to be developed with the same seriousness.

Physical abuse
Sibling physical abuse is far more common than peer bullying and other forms of family abuse, such as spousal or child abuse. It includes but is not limited to hitting, biting, slapping, stabbing, shoving, punching and even tickling. It is very difficult to calculate prevalence rates for different reasons that lie within the family or in cultural norms and beliefs. Within the family, adults have difficulty recognizing abuse because sibling competition and conflict are very common. Aggression is even considered to have a positive side in sibling relationships because it helps children gain skills to build relationships outside the family circle. Other individuals prefer to deny the situation and continue family life as if the problem didn't exist. The victim does not complain because of fear of retaliation from the perpetrator or because he/she is unable to recognize abuse from acceptable sibling aggression. On the other hand, cultural norms and beliefs deter individuals from openly addressing it because they don't want to be pointed out by society. Correct reporting of sibling abuse faces multiple challenges starting with the fact that it is under reported for the reasons stated above, professional child care providers having considerably different definitions of the term and the lack of a system to track the wide information. Sibling physical abuse persists from childhood through adulthood, with prevalence rates varying across studies and its intensity and frequency declining as the victim and or perpetrator grow up.

Psychological abuse
Psychological abuse includes name calling, belittling, teasing, insulting, threatening to harm, and the destruction of personal property. Adults, be it the parents or professional care providers, have difficulty differentiating between psychological aggression and abuse because it is difficult to identify when the balance of power is not evenly distributed, hence, the consequences of the aggression are not only injury but also control or domination of one sibling over the other. Although it has been found to be the most prevalent type of abuse in sibling conflict, prevalence rates are difficult to calculate because of the difficulty in differentiating aggression from abuse.

Sexual abuse
Sibling sexual abuse includes penetration, touching, and other behaviors with sexual connotation that not necessarily require touching. To differentiate sexual abuse from sexual curiosity or playing innocent games there needs to be coercion, secrecy and domination over one sibling. Prevalence rates are also difficult to calculate for several reasons: victims do not realize that they are suffering abuse until they reach maturity and have a better understanding of the role they played during the encounters, they are afraid of reporting, and there is no consensus on a definition of sibling sexual abuse.

Relational abuse
Relational abuse includes gossiping, humiliating in front of others, preventing socialization with desired groups. It is challenging to identify and calculate prevalence rates because it is normally done indirectly so the perpetrator is unknown to the victim. Additionally, an apparently good sibling relationship, with no physical or emotional direct aggression, may hide this type of abuse. Likewise, physical and emotional abuse are more notorious in bad sibling relationships. Since this is a relatively new concept, practitioners need to define and explain the mechanics to the family so they can participate in detection and reporting.

Identifying Sibling abuse
To identify physical, psychological and relational sibling abuse, practitioners and parents need observe behavior and ask questions about the sibling's relationships that will help them understand if there are characteristics that differentiate aggression from abuse. Sexual sibling abuse requires additional considerations. Victims may initially deny the existence of any type of abuse but this may be because they haven't realized it yet. Different questions about the prevalence of types of aggression, frequency, intention of harm, magnitude of the aggression and unidirectional dominance help assess the existence of abuse. Regarding sexual abuse, individuals are less likely to openly talk about it, unlike other forms of abuse such as physical or psychological. For this reason, in addition to ask direct questions about sibling sexual abuse, practitioners and parents must look out for behaviors that may indicate the presence of sexual abuse. Another challenge comes when differentiating between sexual abuse and adequate sexual behavior. Practitioners must be careful of not confounding incest with abuse. The biggest difference relies in that incest happens with the consensus of both siblings while sexual abuse does not. A victim may not be aware that he/she did not consent because of innocence or lack of understanding of what was happening. The latter generally happens to children who are too young to understand sexual implications and boundaries.