NCJ Number
216716
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 21 Issue: 6 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 407-416
Date Published
August 2006
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study examined the prevalence and perceptions of violence within sibling relationships among a sample of college students.
Abstract
Results indicated that 70.5 percent of participants reported being either victims or perpetrators of severe physical violence within their sibling relationships. Additionally, 83 percent of participants had either experienced or perpetrated mild or severe sibling violence at some point in time. While the rate of sibling violence was quiet high, 83 percent of participants did not recognize sibling violence as a form of violence and referred to it instead as “conflict,” “rivalry,” or “aggression.” However, participants who reported severe sibling violence were more likely than other participants to label their experiences as violence. The results should aid family violence practitioners in understanding how attitudes impact the legitimization or rejection of violence within families. Participants were a convenience sample of 200 college students who were recruited from 3 general psychology classes at a large university in the Southeastern United States. Participants completed a revised version of the Conflict Tactics Scales on family violence as well as a self-labeling measure of sibling violence. The measures were used to identify the nature of participants’ perceptions regarding sibling violence. Data were analyzed using chi-square tests and two-way MANOVA calculations. Future research should use a qualitative approach to gather rich information about the ways in which individuals describe conflict and violence within their sibling relationships. Tables, references