We Are Family: Specifying the Unique Contribution of Abuse and Neglect of Siblings on the Prevalence, Severity, and Chronicity of Maltreatment in the Household

Abstract

Prior research typically focuses on a single child ("index" victim) when measuring child abuse and neglect (CAN) using Child Protective Services (CPS) records. However, excluding siblings has the potential to underestimate estimates of the prevalence, severity, and chronicity of CAN in the household, which includes all children in the family. CPS maltreatment records were searched in 2005 for 366 "index" victims who were surveyed for 5 consecutive years (from 1998 to 2002) for the Mobile Youth Survey (MYS) as well as other siblings in the household. The estimate of prevalence of CAN in the household increased by 10% when sibling(s) in the household were included in the CPS search. In addition, prevalence of sexual abuse in the household increased by 38% when siblings were included in the broader search of CPS records. More importantly, including sibling victims of CAN uncovered incidents of maltreatment that occurred before the birth of the targeted MYS "index" victim. In short, the inclusion of abuse and neglect of siblings is a straightforward and intuitive way to improve estimates of abuse and neglect in the household. More importantly, the age of onset of CAN of sibling victims provides a wider window of opportunity to identify at-risk families for targeted interventions and may represent a critical stepping stone toward the primary prevention of CAN in the household.

It is a family affair: individual experiences and sibling exposure to emotional, physical and sexual abuse and the impact on adult depressive symptoms

“…However, when considerin g the family mean and relative level of CM a slightly different picture emerges. The family-wide effects of CM on an individual may be either direct, by being exposed to the same adverse parental behavior, or indirect, the so-called vicarious effect of CM (Spano, 2018 ). For EM, both the family means and relative levels (i.e.…”

“…getting hit or kicked by a parent), could also affect siblings indirect by being the spectator, i.e. the vicarious effect of abuse (Spano, 2018 ). Thus, a key question we aim to investigate is whether CM reported by siblings growing up together (i.e.…”

Risk Factors for Maltreatment in Siblings of Abused Children

“…The author of a later US study of 366 youth found that some families were the subject of multiple reports, although there was less information on the level of increased risk and for which specific maltreatment type. 7 Of the 3 remaining studies of sibling maltreatment, 2 were focused specifically on physical abuse 8 or children who were severely abused, 9 whereas the third involved interviews with 59 sibling pairs to assess reports of neglectful parenting. 10 The authors of these studies all reported that siblings of children who were maltreated were more likely to experience physical or severe abuse.…”

Association between cognitive phenotype in unaffected siblings and prospective 3- and 6-year clinical outcome in their proband affected by psychosis

“…Familial genetic variants explain part of the variance in adolescent cognitive development (Dickinson et al, 2019). Shared environmental circumstances, including shared trauma, or family financial stability may also add to development of familial cognition (Gottschling et al, 2019; Hakulinen, Webb, Pedersen, Agerbo, & Mok, 2020; Mansueto, Schruers, Cosci, & van Os, 2019; Spano, 2018). Cognition then may mediate the relationship between these exposures and symptomatic outcomes in psychosis, exerting the strongest effect on disorganization (Mansueto et al, 2019).…”