Sibling Abuse Has Finally Made Headlines

Every so often, I type "sibling abuse" into Google to see what I can find. The same two or three sites always pop up, and I happily refresh myself on the information they provide me. I'm always on the lookout for something new though, and a few weeks ago I found it. This, ladies and gentlemen, is stark evidence that awareness of sibling abuse is gaining momentum. This article, entitled When The Bully Is a Sibling appeared in the family section of The New York Times on June 17, 2013. You read that right. The New York Times. And those italics aren't just me being grammatically correct. 

This article covered a new study that examined a group of 3,600 children and surveyed everything ranging from physical assaults to psychological intimidation. This sibling abuse study is the widest scope known. Previous studies of sibling abuse are few in number, have been on a much smaller scale and only focused on specific forms of violence. One-third of the children in the study reported being victimized over the past year. Corinna Jenkins Tucker, Ph.D., the lead author of the study, along with her colleagues and other sibling abuse researchers were interviewed. They covered familiar ground:

• There is a difference between sibling abuse and sibling rivalry
• Parents often mistakenly label sibling aggression as "normal"
• Sibling abuse is the most common form of abuse, and it's still under reported because it's excused and minimized
• Sibling psychological abuse is just as serious as peer aggression
• Sibling physical abuse is just as severe as parent-child abuse
• Parents can encourage abuse by not intervening, labeling children, or playing favorites
• Children who are victimized experience more anger, anxiety and depression
• Findings suggest even emotional abuse is serious

The first thought that popped into my head when I saw this article was: "It's about time!!!"I cannot believe it has taken this long for sibling abuse to receive the attention it deserves. Aside from not being given a lot of attention, sibling abuse has also not been taken very seriously. That was the goal of this study--to prove that sibling abuse is a serious issue, and needs to be treated as such. Look around the Internet, and you'll find that this small article has made a big impact. Many different news stations are reporting on this study's findings, like USA Today, NBC News, and The Huffington Post, just to name a few. 

In addition to my pride in having this issue finally be taken seriously, I'm also feeling another "No Duh!" about it. It shouldn't be that hard for parents to understand that bullying is unacceptable. In addition to the other news sources, The Onion also did a news story...a tiny spoof on the obvious notion that bullying done by a sibling is just as harmful as bullying done by a peer. One of these days, it won't take The Onion to tell parents they're being fools. After this war on sibling abuse is fought, people will wonder why parents were ever so dense as to believe sibling abuse was no big deal.