Researchers from the University of New Hampshire have managed to explain the toy-snatching, aggressive behaviors and fights between siblings - an effect of poor mental health. This study was among the first to look at sibling aggression across a wide geographical area and a wide age.
The team, led by Corinna Jenkins Tucker, the associate professor of family studies at the University of New Hampshire and the lead author of the research, looked at the data from the National Survey of Children's Exposure to Violence, which involved around 3,599 children, all between the ages of 1 to 17 months.
They looked at how physical assaults, which either did or did not cause injury, psychological aggression, which involved saying things that would make their sibling feel hurt and property aggression involving stealing or breaking their siblings possessions, affected the children.
They found that around 32 percent of children, who suffered from atleast one of these types of sibling victimization, suffered from mental distress, which was sometimes even greater than adolescents who suffered from mild sibling aggression and rivalry.
Peer aggression and bullying was always considered to be more harmful and severe than sibling rivalry; but this study has changed all that. Sibling rivalry may sometimes have a worse impact on the mental health of the child.
"Even kids who reported just one instance had more mental health distress," Tucker said. "Our study shows that sibling aggression is not benign for children and adolescents, regardless of how severe or frequent."
Tucker further stresses on the fact that parents, teachers and caregivers should pay more attention to sibling rivalry, since it does have a profound effect on the kid's mental health and thereby his development too. "If siblings hit each other, there's a much different reaction than if that happened between peers," she added. "It's often dismissed, seen as something that's normal or harmless. Some parents even think it's beneficial, as good training for dealing with conflict and aggression in other relationships."
Tucker also hopes that parent education programmes and other such modes of awareness may help parents better able to cope up with this problem.
The study is all set to be published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics.
