Reducing Sibling Rivalry

This time on Peace Talks Radio, the conflict scenario that we’re going to look into with our guests is sibling rivalry. It's something that seems ubiquitous across cultures and is as old as the oldest stories in human history. Approximately one-third of adults describe their relationship with their siblings as rivalrous or distant. Also, there’s this: A 2005 study put the number of assaults each year to children by a sibling at about 35 per 100 kids – so about a third of children are actually suffering physical violence at the hands of siblings. So, although the Smothers Brothers, and most sitcoms over the years have made sibling rivalry into an ongoing joke, it can lead to serious emotional and physical hurt. We hear ideas from our guests about how to reduce that pain – both during childhood and into adulthood if those bad feelings endure. Our guests are: Samuel Roll, a psychologist and professor emeritus in psychology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque; Jeanne Safer, a New York psychologist and author; and Atlanta authors and parents Denene Millner and Nick Chiles, who have three children, including two teenage daughters.