Physical Violence Between Siblings A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This study develops and tests a theoretical model to explain sibling violence based on the feminist, conflict, and social learning theoretical perspectives and research in psychology and sociology. A multivariate analysis of data from 651 young adults generally supports hypotheses from all three theoretical perspectives. Males with brothers have significantly higher levels of sibling violence than the other three types of sibling pairs. As predicted, conflict and abuse between parents are associated with negative parent-child interactions, which in turn are related to problems in siblings' relationships with each other. All of these predict sibling violence.