In family relationships, bullying or being bullied can have detrimental consequences for well-being and psychological state years later.
- Childhood and adolescence are periods of vulnerability from a mental health perspective.
- Bullying between siblings is often seen as normal and less serious than bullying from other children outside the family.
Children’s bickering seems light and inconsequential, in fact, it can be detrimental to mental health years later. According to a study published in Journal of youth and adolescence, children who are harassed or harassed by their siblings are more at risk of developing mental disorders later. In this work, the researchers, Umar Toseeb and Dieter Wolke, define bullying between siblings: it is any aggressive, unwanted behavior on the part of a sibling that involves an imbalance power and is repeated several times. Previous research has shown that half of 11-year-olds are affected by this phenomenon, but this proportion then decreases.
Questions about their mental health and well-being
In their study, the two researchers analyzed data on more than 17,000 young people. They had answered a questionnaire on harassment between brother and sister at 11 and then at 14 years old. It had two questions:how often do your siblings hurt or harass you on purpose?” and “how often do you intentionally hurt or harass your siblings?“. When they were 17, they were asked more questions about their mental health and well-being. Their parents were also given a survey about the mental well-being of their children at these three ages.
Bullied or bullied: similar consequences on mental health
Scientists have noticed that the more the frequency of bullying between siblings increases between pre-adolescence and mid-adolescence, the greater the severity of mental disorders in late adolescence. The results also revealed that bullying between siblings in early adolescence, whether the person is a victim, an aggressor or both, has a long-term effect on mental health in late adolescence. . “It should be noted that even those who bullied their siblings but were not bullied themselves had worse mental health outcomes years later.“, says Dr. Toseeb. According to him and his co-author, fighting bullying between siblings could help prevent mental health disorders in late adolescence.
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