Toseeb Umar, McChesney Gillian, Dantchev Slava, Wolke Dieter
Department of Education, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK.
Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, M15 6GX, UK.
Child Abuse Negl. 2020 Oct;108:104633. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104633. Epub 2020 Jul 31.
There is increasing evidence that sibling bullying is associated with various social, emotional, and mental health difficulties. It is, however, unclear which factors predict sibling bullying in middle childhood and whether child-level individual differences make some children more susceptible to sibling bullying involvement.
To investigate the precursors of sibling bullying in middle childhood in a UK based population sample.
Existing data from the prospective Millennium Cohort Study (N = 16,987) were used. Primary caregivers reported on precursors (child age 7 years or earlier) whilst children self-reported on sibling bullying (child age 11 years).
A series of multinomial logistic regression models were fitted. First, testing for crude associations between sibling bullying and the precursors individually. Culminating in a final model with the significant predictors from all of the previous models.
Structural family-level characteristics (e.g. birth order, ethnicity, and number of siblings) were found to be the strongest predictors of sibling bullying involvement followed by child-level individual differences (e.g. emotional dysregulation and sex). Parenting and parental characteristics (e.g. primary caregiver self-esteem and harsh parenting) predicted sibling bullying, but to a lesser extent.
These findings suggest that structural family characteristics and child-level individual differences are the most important risk factors for sibling bullying. If causality can be established in future research, they highlight the need for interventions to be two-pronged: aimed at parents, focusing on how to distribute their time and resources appropriately to all children, and the children themselves, targeting specific sibling bullying behaviors.
越来越多的证据表明，兄弟姐妹间的欺凌与各种社会、情感和心理健康问题有关。然而，目前尚不清楚哪些因素能预测童年中期的兄弟姐妹间欺凌行为，以及儿童个体差异是否会使一些孩子更容易卷入兄弟姐妹间的欺凌行为。
在英国的一个人群样本中调查童年中期兄弟姐妹间欺凌行为的先兆因素。
使用了前瞻性千禧队列研究的现有数据（N = 16,987）。主要照顾者报告先兆因素（孩子7岁及更早时的情况），而孩子则自我报告兄弟姐妹间的欺凌行为（孩子11岁时）。
拟合了一系列多项逻辑回归模型。首先，分别测试兄弟姐妹间欺凌行为与各先兆因素之间的原始关联。最终得出一个包含之前所有模型中显著预测因素的最终模型。
家庭结构层面的特征（如出生顺序、种族和兄弟姐妹数量）被发现是卷入兄弟姐妹间欺凌行为的最强预测因素，其次是儿童个体差异（如情绪失调和性别）。养育方式和父母特征（如主要照顾者的自尊和严厉养育方式）也能预测兄弟姐妹间的欺凌行为，但程度较小。
这些发现表明，家庭结构特征和儿童个体差异是兄弟姐妹间欺凌行为最重要的风险因素。如果未来的研究能够确定因果关系，那么它们凸显了干预措施需要从两方面入手：针对父母，重点关注如何将时间和资源合理分配给所有孩子；针对孩子本身，针对特定的兄弟姐妹间欺凌行为。
