Abstract

9^th European Conference on Traumatic Stress (ECOTS)

18-21 June 2005

Stockholm, Sweden

Reconceptualizing Collateral Damage:

A Family Systems Perspective on Siblings of Sexually Abused Children

Doreen Arcus

University of Massachusetts Lowell; Lowell, MA; USA

doreen_arcus@uml.edu

Children’s development and adjustment do not occur in a vacuum but in a series of social and relational systems, the family chief among them. Traumatisation to any one child disturbs the homeostatic balance of the family with potential consequences for all members of that system. Why then are non-abused siblings so absent from the literature on childhood sexual abuse? Secondary or vicarious traumatisation approaches to understanding the challenges facing non-abused siblings predict PTSD and related symptoms to be elevated in sibling groups. From this perspective, research findings that fail to find significant sibling problems would be deemed “non-findings” and unpublishable. A family systems perspective, however, suggests that non-abused siblings respond to the family’s need to support the traumatised child by suppressing symptoms and exaggerating the importance of remaining “normal.” This response contributes to family functioning by balancing the extra needs of the target child with the apparently reduced needs of the sibling. In this framework, siblings are at risk for a set of adjustment problems centering on underachievement and repression as they strive to “float beneath the radar screen” so as not to drain attention away from the family crisis. Case study support and research challenges are discussed.