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An emotionally abusive family environment is the primary cause of sibling abuse.

Parents' behavior plays a key role in preventing sibling abuse.

Parents tend to downplay and minimize the damage caused by sibling abuse.

Until recently, sibling abuse has been overlooked as a major problem, especially compared to other forms of childhood abuse. The good news is that there has been a growing interest in this extremely damaging form of abuse. Extensive research shows that sibling abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual) can lead to internalized shame, substance abuse, self-harm, nightmares, phobias, delinquency, and running away. In addition, many victims suffer from long-term effects including chronic low self-esteem, distrusting others, eating disorders, an increased rate of depression and anxiety, substance abuse, difficulties with boundaries, and, most importantly, difficulties forming healthy relationships. Many experts now consider sibling abuse to be the least reported and most damaging type of childhood abuse. It has been reported that approximately one-third of children in the United States have been physically harmed, threatened, or humiliated by a sibling.

In this post, I will show how parents have much more power to stop sibling abuse from occurring than they are aware of. In fact, it is up to parents to prevent this damaging form of abuse in their own family.

Risk Factors for Sibling Abuse

The primary risk factor for sibling abuse is being raised in an emotionally abusive family. Specifically, exposure to parental conflict, family violence, and harsh parenting are linked to sibling abuse. Families living in chaos or continual crisis are at risk of sibling abuse, partly........

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