Internalizing and externalizing symptoms often reflect diagnosable psychopathology among adolescents (Perverill et al., 2021). Internalizing symptoms refer to inward reaction or expression to distress such as depression, anxiety, and somatic complains (Debe et al., 2021; Humphreys et al., 2019), whereas externalizing symptoms consist of outward behaviors, including aggression and substance use (Hussong et al., 2017; Pedersen et al., 2018). The occurrence of these adverse outcomes is often linked to family violence within the home (Aksoy et al., 2022; Lawrence et al., 2022). Specifically, exposure to family violence often increases the likelihood for adolescents endorsing depressive symptoms (Chan et al., 2021; Lawrence et al., 2022), use illicit substances substance use (Espelage et al., 2014), and aggressive behavior (Lawrence, 2022).
The extent to which adolescents endorse internalizing and externalizing symptoms often differ across gender and race. For instance, prior literature has shown that males are often more likely to endorse externalizing symptoms (e.g., aggression and substance use). However, females are more likely to report experiencing internalizing symptoms (Askari et al., 2021; Jun et al., 2015). Pertaining to race, prior literature indicates that among adolescents, African Americans were more likely to engage in aggressive behavior, use substances, and endorse depressive symptoms (Daly, 2022). Due to the pernicious effects of internalizing and externalizing symptoms following exposure to family violence, these patterns are often persistent and pervasive over time, negatively impacting adolescents' overall mental health (Yoon et al., 2020).
Prior literature suggests these outcomes are profound because adolescents often rely on their parents as caregivers to help them make sense of their experiences and response to traumatic events (Roberts et al., 2013). However, when they encounter traumatic events, these experiences could cause emotion dysregulation, impair their understanding of complex social roles and their ability to empathize and attend to social cues (Weissman et al., 2019). Consequently, adolescents can imitate and use aggressive tendencies to achieve specific goals, which could lead to sibling abuse (Ingram et al., 2020; Tucker et al., 2020). Although sibling abuse definition often varies, and there are ongoing debates on the acceptable definition (Krienert & Walsh, 2011; Tucker et al., 2013), using an as inclusive approach, sibling abuse refers to physical and verbal aggression such as hitting, kicking, and name calling (Mackey et al., 2010).
Though sibling abuse is the most common form of family violence (Khan & Cooke, 2013), it is often perceived as a “normal” pattern of sibling communication (Tippett & Wolke, 2015). While parents could perceive that sibling abuse is normal and unharmful, it is quite possible that continuous sibling abuse could lead to internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Despite this, few studies have explored how exposure to family violence could be associated with sibling abuse, which is subsequently associated with internalizing (depression) and externalizing symptoms (aggression and substance use) explained by the intergenerational transmission of violence and social information process theory. Thus, this study aims to test the indirect paths of sibling abuse on the association between exposure to family violence and internalizing/externalizing symptoms while controlling for gender and race.
Theoretical Underpinnings
There are several theoretical explanations of the etiology of aggressive behavior among adolescents. One model is the intergenerational transmission of violence (ITV). According to this model, adolescents often perpetrate aggressive behavior toward others through observation and imitating violent behavior in the home (Langhinrichsen-Rohling et al., 2004; Lawrence, 2022). Adolescents who are exposed to family violence may develop “aggressive scripts” that are often retrieved in socially ambiguous situations (Huesmann, 2018; Lawrence et al., 2022). Consequently, these aggressive scripts are rehearsed and triggered when the adolescent perceives their environment as hostile, which then increases the risk of aggressive behavior (Huesmann, 1988).
These hostile attributions are better explained by the social information processing theory (SIP), which suggests that individuals often encode relevant information and cues through selective attention to particular stimuli that are stored in the long-term memory and given meaning to be retrieved in social situations. Once encoded, the individual could wrongfully attribute hostility toward ambiguous situations, which subsequently increases the likelihood for them to engage in aggressive behavior (Dodge & Crick, 1990). Numerous studies have shown that aggressive behavior is often associated with provocation and hostile attributions (Helfritz & Stanford, 2014; Tuente et al., 2019). Because exposure to family violence often increases familial stress and creates an unsafe environment for adolecents (Moylan et al., 2010), these potentially traumatic events could disrupt the ability to form attachment bonds with peers, negatively impacting emotion dysregulation and prosocial skills needed in social situations (Myers & Wells, 2015; Pat-Horenczyk et al., 2017). As such, it is possible that as adolescents were exposed to family violence, they encoded aggressive scripts as an adaptive mechanism in social situations, which leads to impaired social skills when interacting with their siblings, subsequently increasing the vulnerability for sibling abuse. Consequences of these unhealthy patterns could lead to psychopathological symptoms including aggressive behavior, depressive symptoms, and substance use.
Current Study
The current study aims were to examine how exposure to family violence is associated with sibling abuse, which relates to internalizing (depression) and externalizing (aggression and substance use) while controlling for gender and race. To do this, we modeled exposure to family violence as a predictor of internalizing/externalizing symptoms indirectly explained by sibling abuse. Because exposure to family violence often positively associate with social vulnerability for future victimization (Perry et al., 2021), we hypothesize that as adolescents were exposed to family violence, they would be more likely to experience sibling abuse (H1). Then because adolescents exposed to family violence are often at a higher risk of experiencing peer victimization, we predict that consequences of these patterns would positively associate with internalizing (depressive symptoms) and externalizing (aggressive behavior and substance use) pathologies (H2).