Sibling Abuse: A Study of School Counselors’ Shared Attitudes and Beliefs

Abstract

The impact of sibling abuse on children and adolescents is rarely contemplated. Counselors are in a position to advocate for all children and protect them from harm; yet one source of harm that counseling practitioners and educators might be unaware of stems from violence between siblings, which can become abusive. In this article, findings are presented from a phenomenological study examining eight practicing school counselors' attitudes and beliefs about sibling abuse and the contexts or situations that have influenced them. Seven themes emerged supporting school counselors' perceptions of their role in responding to sibling abuse and their beliefs about factors contributing to sibling abuse. Recommendations for advocacy for children and adolescents are offered for counselor educators, counselors-in-training and counseling practitioners, school counselors in particular.Keywords: sibling abuse, school counselors, advocacy, children, adolescentsAll counselors advocate for their clients (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2014; Ratts & Hutchins, 2009). School counselors, in particular, often perform a fundamental role in advocating for the well-being of children and adolescents (American School Counselor Association [ASCA], 2012; Ratts, DeKruyf, & Chen-Hayes, 2007). A unique aspect of practice for school counselors is that they work with children and adolescents on a daily basis and often over a longer period of time than other counselors in the community. School counselors' close proximity to children and adolescents within the school system also allows them to advocate for students systematically year after year.One important way that school counselors can advocate for students is by protecting them from harm. In accordance with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Children's Bureau, 2010), the ASCA Ethical Standards (2010) and the ACA Code of Ethics (2014), school counselors must report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to child protective service (CPS) agencies. School counselors often receive training on abuse recognition and reporting (Alvarez, Donohue, Kenny, Cavanagh, & Romero, 2005; Kominkiewicz, 2004; Lambie, 2005; Minard, 1993). However, child abuse training is typically exclusively focused on parent-to-child abuse or abuse by another adult over the age of 18.Abuse of children by adults may not be as prevalent as other forms of abuse against children. A less commonly explored form of family violence is sibling abuse. In the past, sibling abuse was considered a normal rite of passage that most children experience and was misidentified as sibling rivalry (Phillips, Phillips, Grupp, & Trigg, 2009). However, results from National Family Violence Surveys indicated that violence between siblings was extensive and harmful (as cited in Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980). Wiehe (2002) summarized that participants in these surveys revealed the rates of sibling abuse make the high rates of other forms of family violence, such as parents abusing children or spouses abusing each other, seem modest by comparison (p. 2). In addition to potentially being the most prevalent form of abuse, it also has been determined that violence between siblings was the least reported and researched form of family abuse (Eriksen & Jensen, 2006, 2009). Stutey (2013) posited that a lack of federal laws and protocol for reporting sibling abuse, as well as the absence of a definition for sibling abuse in the school counseling literature, might contribute to this problem.For this study, the term sibling aggression was utilized to represent a continuum of behaviors beginning with mild aggression (i.e., competition and conflict) and progressing to severe aggression (i.e., violence and abuse; Caspi, 2012). Sibling abuse and sibling violence were both viewed as severe forms of sibling aggression, with sibling abuse being the most severe. Sibling abuse has been defined as the unilateral physical, emotional or sexual harm of one sibling by another (Caspi, 2012). …