This week marks the annual Siblings Day - recognised in various places across the world as a time to highlight positive relationships between brothers and sisters.

But for some, the sibling relationship can be much trickier to navigate. There’s a whole host of reasons why this could be the case – but one of these is when Child to Parent Abuse is occurring in the house.

Just as with other forms of domestic abuse, witnessing CPA can have an impact on the other children in the home, whatever the link between them and the child displaying the behaviours.

Sadly, we also often see these behaviours being targeted towards other children as well as the parental figures in the home – we know this through what parents tell the PEGS team, but also through the responses to our annual parent surveys.

Results from our latest survey show:

• 52% of respondents said at least two children aged under 18 lived in their home – of these 4% had four and 2% had five under 18s living with them.

• CPA can occur with offspring of any age – there were two adult children (over 18) living in the homes of 5% of our respondents, and three or more adult children living with 2% of respondents.

• Where there were siblings (or those with a sibling-type relationship) living in the home, only 9% said the child displaying the abusive behaviours did not also target them.

• In the cases where other children in the home were targeted, the behaviours were reported as follows:
• Hitting or kicking (43% of respondents said siblings had experienced this in their home)
• Strangling or suffocating (13%)
• Verbal abuse (56%)
• Sexual abuse (1%)
• Threatening (46%)
• Intimidation (47%)

At PEGS, we focus our support services around the parents, carers and guardians experiencing CPA. There are organisations out there, however, whose specialism lies with supporting children and young people through issues such as abuse – we’ve listed a few below who you may wish to reach out to if this applies to you and your family:

Childline | 0800 1111

Children’s Society | Advice about a range of issues

The Mix | For under 25s | 0808 808 4994

NHS Urgent Mental Health Helpline | England Only

NSPCC | 0808 800 5000 | help@NSPCC.org.uk

Papyrus | For under 35s dealing with suicidal thoughts | 0800 068 4141

Samaritans | 116 123

Shout | 24/7 text support for young people in crisis | Text SHOUT to 85258

Victim Support | Helping victims of crime | 0808 1689 111