Physical and Emotional Sibling Violence in the Time of COVID -19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families in a variety of ways with much being written on the potential impact of sheltering in place and quarantining on intimate partner violence and parent-to-child abuse. One area that has received scant attention is that of physical and emotional sibling violence. While physical and emotional sibling violence is a predominant form of family violence, discussion of violence between siblings in the time of COVID-19 has not received the attention it warrants. This article examines the potential for family stress to place siblings at risk for engaging in physical and emotional sibling violence and how this is exacerbated in the time of COVID-19. Also discussed is the the connection between physical and emotional sibling violence and other forms of family violence including intimate partner violence and parent-to-child abuse and neglect which underwrites the need to place physical and emotional sibling violence on the radar of practitioners, policy makers, and researchers. Finally, implications for practice, policy, and research on physical and emotional sibling violence in the context of COVID-19 are discussed.

Predictors of family violence through the COVID-19 pandemic: Structural equation modeling.

There has been much talk, globally and locally, about family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Family violence has received increasing interest from the researchers in many different fields, while family violence during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak still needs researchers' attention to investigate its predictors and detect the prevalence among family members through this health crisis. This study aimed to investigate the spread of family violence and detect the predictors of it with the applied advanced statistical procedure, structural equation modeling (SEM). The researchers prepared the family violence scale that consisted of 21 items, and applied it in a random sample that consisted of (312) individual. The finding indicated that there are high levels of family violence, violence between spouses, violence from parents to children, and sibling violence. As well as, the findings found that the years of marriage are statistically significant of violence between spouses, violence from parents to children, and sibling violence, and the total score of the family violence. As well as, sex is a statistically significant predictor of violence between spouses. While the educational level, age, and income level did not predict violence (total score or dimensions). Based on the results of the current study, counseling programs to reduce family violence and psychotherapy programs to reduce the negative effects of family violence on parents and children must be planned. Therefore, the role of traditional and online family counseling and psychotherapy must be activated in light of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.