Sibling violence silenced: rivalry, competition, wrestling, playing, roughhousing, benign

ANS Adv Nurs Sci. 2009 Apr-Jun;32(2):E1-E16. doi: 10.1097/ANS.0b013e3181a3b2cb.

Abstract

In this article, sibling violence and the silence surrounding it is explicated through professional literature and research findings, exemplars from clinical practice, and statistics. Theoretical positions and discourse analysis have been used to help explain how regular broken bones, bruises, lacerations, and verbal humiliation can be minimized as normal sibling rivalry or roughhousing, which does not cause serious consequences. Nursing should be on the front lines of ending practices of violence. Recognizing sibling violence as such is part of this work and is a social justice issue.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Aggression / psychology
  • Attitude to Health / ethnology
  • Child
  • Child Abuse / ethnology
  • Child Abuse / prevention & control*
  • Child Advocacy
  • Child Behavior / ethnology
  • Child, Preschool
  • Competitive Behavior*
  • Conflict, Psychological
  • Denial, Psychological
  • Humans
  • Nurse's Role* / psychology
  • Nursing Methodology Research
  • Play and Playthings / psychology
  • Postmodernism
  • Semantics
  • Sibling Relations* / ethnology
  • Social Behavior
  • Social Justice*
  • Violence / ethnology
  • Violence / prevention & control*