Sibling Fights Have Greater Impacts

By Staff

Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 14:12

Siblings fight, is an issue which every family witnesses and most of the children go through. It is generally believed that these problem out grow with time. But a recent study has something else to say.

It claims that the innocent fights may be the start of ruining sibling relationship. Such fights in early age may star over trivial issues, but if not handled may take an ugly shape. It is called dangerous, because most of the sibling fights are based on negative thinking and an out growth of misunderstanding. These misunderstanding if not cleared, stay back in memory and has averse outcomes.

University of Missouri researchers identified two major types of conflict among adolescent siblings. They have found that conflicts about personal space have a negative impact on trust and communication between siblings.

“The first conflict area we found includes issues about physical and emotional personal space, such as borrowing items without asking and hanging around when older siblings have friends over. When these issues were present, both younger and older siblings reported less trust and communication.

The second conflict area includes equality and fairness issues, such as taking turns and sharing responsibilities. These conflicts had no impact on relationship quality," said a researcher.

Personal space conflict has been reported more with the older siblings. The personal space conflict in the older sibling may indicate the beginning of their separation from the family.

It is best that such conflicts be handled with the walls, as any exterior intervention, can future aggravate the conflict. To avoid such situation parents should set up family boundaries to reduce sibling conflicts about personal space.

“Parents need to establish and enforce family rules about respecting privacy, personal space and property. However, when sibling conflicts occur, there needs to be negotiations between siblings. Previous research tells us that parents should step aside because they have a tendency to make matters worse," said Campione-Barr.