Sibling Violence and Psychological Adjustment: The Role of Maladaptive Coping and Maternal Authoritativeness

Abstract

This study examined the phenomenon of sibling violence in Singapore. The underlying mechanisms through which maternal authoritativeness and maladaptive coping influenced psychological adjustment following sibling violence were also investigated. Questionnaires were administered to 287 female and 128 male Singaporean college students between the ages of 18 to 27. Results showed that lifetime and past-year prevalence estimates of sibling violence in college students in Singapore were 89.9% and 62.0%, respectively. Lifetime psychological sibling violence involvement and past-year sibling violence involvement (both physical and psychological) were significantly related to maladaptive coping and overall psychological adjustment; lifetime sibling violence involvement was significantly related to maternal authoritativeness, anxiety, and depression only. Maladaptive coping was found to be a significant mediator between past-year physical and psychological sibling violence involvement and two measures of psychological adjustment, anxiety and depression. Maternal authoritativeness functioned as a moderator only for the relationship between past-year psychological sibling violence exposure and psychological adjustment. At low but not high levels of maternal authoritativeness, past-year psychological violence involvement was significantly related to higher levels of anxiety and depression, and lower levels of self-esteem. These findings show that sibling violence is a pervasive problem in Asian countries as well, such as in Singapore. There is a need to educate both the public and the relevant authorities so that steps can be taken to protect those who have experienced or are at risk of experiencing such violence. Through elucidating the role of maternal authoritativeness and maladaptive coping, the present study also suggests new avenues for interventions to reduce the adverse effects of sibling violence. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Sibling Bullying: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Associations with Positive and Negative Mental Health during Adolescence

“…These results are in line with expectations and support previous work on the prospective relationship between sibling bullying and mental health difficulties (e.g., Toseeb et al, 2020a). Similarly, sibling bullying involvement in early adolescence is associated with lower levels of positive mental health in late adolescence, which is in line with previous cross-sectional (e.g., Gan & Tang, 2020) and longitudinal research (e.g., Sharpe et al, 2021). The study extends previous work by focusing on two separate aspects of positive mental health (general wellbeing and selfesteem) in a single investigation.…”

“…The research evidence on the relationship between sibling bullying and positive mental health, in contrast, is scant. Two recent small-scale studies reported that higher levels of sibling bullying are associated with lower levels of life satisfaction (Plamondon et al, 2018) and self-esteem (Gan & Tang, 2020), but both relied on retrospective reports from adults about childhood sibling bullying. A larger population-based study in the United Kingdom reported cross-sectional associations between sibling bullying and life satisfaction, whereby higher levels of sibling bullying were associated with lower levels of life satisfaction in adolescence (Patalay & Fitzsimons, 2016).…”

Sibling Bullying: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Associations with Positive and Negative Mental Health during Adolescence

“…These findings are in line with expectations and support previous work on the prospective relationship between sibling bullying and mental health difficulties Toseeb, McChesney, Dantchev, et al, 2020). Similarly, sibling bullying involvement in early adolescence is associated with lower levels of positive mental health in late adolescence, which is in line with previous cross-sectional (Gan & Tang, 2020;Patalay & Fitzsimons, 2016;Plamondon et al, 2018) and longitudinal research (Sharpe et al, 2021). The study extends previous work by focussing on two separate aspects of positive mental health (general wellbeing and self-esteem) in a single investigation.…”

“…The research evidence on the relationship between sibling bullying and positive mental health in contrast is scant. Two recent small-scale studies reported that higher levels of sibling bullying are associated with lower levels of life-satisfaction and self-esteem, but both relied on retrospective reports from adults about childhood sibling bullying (Gan & Tang, 2020;Plamondon et al, 2018). A larger population-based study in the United Kingdom reported cross-sectional associations between sibling bullying and life satisfaction, whereby higher levels of sibling bullying were associated with lower levels of life satisfaction in adolescence (Patalay & Fitzsimons, 2016).…”

The Relationship Between Future Time Perspective and Psychological Violence Among Chinese College Students

“…Zhi et al (2013) investigated 4215 adolescent students aged 12 to 20 and summarized that psychological violence included pressure buildup, interpersonal attacks, verbal aggression and network violence. Largely caused by past bad experiences and current poor conditions (Xiang and Han, 2019;Cprek et al, 2020;Gan and Tang, 2020), psychological violence is one of the most prevalent forms of violent behaviors at college (Larranaga and Figueroa, 2011), which will influence college students' future development (Fontaine and Réveillère, 2004;Shen, 2013;Fry et al, 2016). First, compared with obvious physical violent behaviors, psychological violence is usually more hidden, which makes it easier to ignore its long-term negative consequences, such as depressive states (Chen et al, 2011), posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (Shen, 2013), poor educational performance (Tourigny et al, 2008;Fry et al, 2016;Han et al, 2017), and psychological traumatic expressions (Fontaine and Réveillère, 2004).…”