Photo credit to childmind.org
Larger families with 3 or more kids have more sibling violence than smaller families. The bully is usually the oldest or older brothers and the victims are the younger siblings, with females being targeted.
There are 3 forms of bullying: saying hurtful things causing psychological harm; hitting causing physical harm and isolating or lying about a sibling causing emotional harm.
Kids can be both the bully and the victim.
It’s known that family violence can cause loneliness, delinquency and mental health problems later in life for all involved.
In big families, kids compete for resources and parents’ attention, so they turn to dominating their siblings to get what they want.
Parents should manage this from the beginning by spending quality time with their older kids and involving them in caring for the younger kids.
Sibling jealousy can undermine even the most stable family. This needs to be addressed very early.
Claudia
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