Background: Sibling sexual abuse is a common form of intra-familial sexual abuse, yet it remains under-studied and under-recognised, leaving many children unprotected and unsupported. Practitioners need rigorously conducted evidence syntheses to inform decision making in this complex practice area.
Objective: A scoping review was conducted with the broad research question: What is known about sibling sexual abuse? in order to map the research and to establish areas of knowledge and gaps requiring attention.
Method: The review followed the guidelines of Arksey and O'Malley (2005), and through searches of 11 academic databases, 3 grey literature databases, journal handsearch and Google, identified 91 empirical papers for review.
Results: While poorly and inconsistently defined, sibling sexual abuse is a common form of child sexual abuse with significant consequences for the whole family. It may involve children of any age and sex, entail the full range of sexual behaviours, and can take place in families from across the socioeconomic spectrum. Disclosure is uncommon during childhood, with multiple barriers including the nature of the caregiving environment in which sibling sexual abuse often takes place. Official records are likely to under-report the frequency and duration of the abuse.
Conclusions: There is considerable scope for further research across all aspects of sibling sexual abuse. This paper represents the most comprehensive (albeit not complete) overview of the current body of knowledge in this field to date, and presents key findings as well as a summary of practice and research recommendations.
Background: Sibling sexual abuse, believed to be the most common form of sexual abuse, is a marginalized area of study. Even so, available literature largely focuses on the survivors and a gap remains in understanding the experience of the parents in these circumstances.
Objective: The study aims to examine the experience of parents who learn that sexual abuse has been perpetrated on their child(ren) by a sibling(s).
Participants and setting: The sample includes 58 participants who identify as a parent of a child who was sexually abused by a sibling, a child who sexually harmed a sibling, or both. The sample was recruited by 5WAVES, a grassroots charity that supports families experiencing sibling sexual trauma.
Methods: Participants completed a voluntary and anonymous online questionnaire which inquired on how they learned of the abuse in their family as well as how they reacted and continue to cope. The current qualitative analysis follows a reflexive thematic method and is a portion of a larger mixed-methods study.
Results: Four overarching themes were identified: (1) Parental trauma experience upon learning of sibling sexual trauma, (2) Initial and continual parental emotional responses to the trauma, (3) Breakdown of the ideal family and (4) Parental attempts at coping.
Conclusions: These results recognize the unique trauma experienced by parents where sibling sexual abuse occurred in their family. It acknowledges the crucial need for clinicians, professionals, family and friends to support parents during this time in order that they can best support their children and family.