Msw Students’ Knowledge of and Capacity to Address Physical and Emotional Sibling Violence

Purpose

Physical and emotional sibling violence (PESV) is a pervasive phenomenon within the U.S. that has largely been minimized in comparison to other forms of family violence. Research, with a pilot sample, has examined physical and emotional sibling violence in Masters of Social Work (MSW) students along with their perceived capacity to address PESV in practice (Perkins et al., 2023). However, large-scale, national samples have not previously been included to examining MSW students’ knowledge of and capacity to address PESV. This study presents the examination of knowledge of and capacity to address PESV as well as personal experiences with PESV in a national sample of MSW students in the U.S.

Methods

MSW program directors within the U.S. were asked to email their MSW students with a link to complete a survey including demographics, personal experiences with PESV, and items addressing student knowledge of and capacity to address PESV. The final sample for this study included those who had complete data for PESV (N=468). Along with frequencies on knowledge and capacity of PESV as well as personal experiences with PESV, correlations and t-tests were then run to examine associations between each knowledge and capacity of PESV and PESV in participants.

Results

Of the sample, 89.1% were female, 68.6% were Caucasian, 66.5% were heterosexual with an average age of 29.77. 71.3% of participants did not agree or strongly agree that they had knowledge of PESV yet 58.5% agreed or strongly agreed that they had the capacity to address PESV. Of the 15 action items on addressing PESV, there was substantial parity in those that did and did not believe they could address PESV based on total PESV score. The one item with discrepancy (t(464)=2.25, p=.03) was with ability to “stop situations involving violence between siblings” where those who agreed or strongly agreed with this statement had a higher mean score of PESV frequency (M=2.15, SD=.64) compared to those that did not agree/strong agree (M=2.02, SD=.62). Total PESV scores were not associated with knowledge of or capacity to address PESV or any of the 15 action items on addressing sibling violence.

Conclusions

The results highlight the need for continued examination of the process by which MSW students believe they have the capacity to address PESV without knowledge of PESV. While continued research is needed, based on the findings it may be that those with higher frequency of experiencing PESV may feel as though they have more ability to intervene in instances when PESV is occurring based on prior personal experiences. Further research is needed to examine this dynamic as mechanisms geared towards education are needed for MSW students who will likely encounter PESV when working with children, families, and couples throughout the life course.