Examining sibling bullying in adolescents in the context of gender

Adolescence is a developmental stage in which significant changes are observed in physical, sexual, moral, cognitive and social aspects and the individual goes through a process of adaptation to these changes. It is very important for adolescents to be supported by their families as their close social environment during this developmental period. Especially sibling relationships serve as a kind of social laboratory in terms of siblings' socialization experiences. However, sibling relationships during adolescence can often lead to conflicts between siblings due to the effect of the identity acquisition process. This situation can often be seen as siblings displaying bullying behaviors. However, when the literature on bullying is examined, it is seen that the research is mostly based on peer bullying, but there is not enough research on sibling bullying and conflicts experienced during this process. This study aims to examine sibling bullying in adolescents in the context of gender. For this purpose, the phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study and 10 girls and 10 boys in adolescence were included in the study. A personal information form and a semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools in the study and the data were subjected to content analysis. According to the findings obtained as a result of the analysis, it was determined that sibling bullying is directly related to how adolescents perceive gender roles, male adolescents exhibit more physical bullying behaviors, while female adolescents exhibit verbal and emotional bullying behaviors. In addition, lack of communication within the family, unfair attitudes of parents and gender-based expectations have emerged as effective factors in both the emergence and continuation of bullying between siblings. These findings reveal that sibling bullying should be addressed not only individually but also in the context of social, cultural and gender.