Parental Witnessing of Physical and Emotional Sibling Violence in Their Children: Associations with Parental Experiences of Physical and Emotional Sibling Violence and ACEs in Childhood

ABSTRACT

Parents often face a considerable amount of stress around managing their children’s relationships. One source of stress can include instances of physical and emotional sibling violence (PESV). While this form of family violence has received minimal attention compared to other types of family violence, there is a need to better understand parental witnessing of PESV and how it is associated with parents’ childhood experiences of PESV as well as adverse childhood experiences. This research study examines the association of parents’ childhood experiences of PESV and adverse childhood experiences with witnessing PESV in their children while controlling for current family context variables and childhood family context variables. In a sample of 146 parents recruited from Qualtrics’ research panels, parental witnessing of PESV between their children was correlated with both parental experiences of PESV in childhood and adverse childhood experiences. In the regression models, only parental experiences of PESV in childhood, abusive adverse childhood events, and having less education than a bachelor’s degree were associated with parental witnessing of PESV between their children when controlling for other variables. The results of the research indicate a potential intergenerational transmission of PESV. Implications of the research support the need for practitioners and those working with parents and families to assess for PESV and educate on this form of family violence to help parents intervene when physical and emotional sibling violence occurs.

KEYWORDS:

• Aces
• children
• intergenerational transmission of violence
• parents
• sibling violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical standards and informed consent

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards as determined by the Institutional Review Boards of Loyola University Chicago and Ohio University and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in the study.