TPC-Journal-V5-Issue3

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 3 395 both of the overarching categories. Descriptions of the themes and accompanying subthemes are provided with support from participants. Participants chose pseudonyms to be used throughout their participation in this research study. Responding to Sibling Abuse Keeping students safe. The first theme that emerged from the participant data was keeping students safe. This theme was defined as participants’ shared beliefs that as school counselors, they are responsible to respond and to advocate on behalf of all students in order to keep them safe from psychological harm. Participants shared that abuse by a sibling was “no different” than a parent abusing a child. However, only one of the eight participants shared that she had responded to sibling abuse by following specific district protocol outlining how school counselors should report sibling abuse. Of the remaining seven participants, four had encountered one or more instances of sibling abuse at their school and responded in a variety of ways to keep students safe. The remaining three participants hypothesized what they might do if sibling abuse was suspected, but reported that they had never directly spoken to a student about sibling abuse. Two subthemes emerged from the participants’ descriptions of keeping students safe—advocacy and collaboration. Advocacy. First, participants shared that they perceived their role as being responsible for keeping students safe by responding through advocacy . For example, Grace shared, “My number-one role is to advocate for students and make sure that they are safe.” Laura stated, “I just think before we can do much of anything else, we have to keep them safe—so that is very important.” She mentioned that for some children, “school is the safe place that they have to go.” Many participants stated that one of the key ways in which they would advocate for children experiencing any kind of abuse, including sibling, was by contacting CPS or law enforcement. Margaret shared, “I think you definitely need to notify law enforcement that it [sibling abuse] is something that is happening in the home and then make a call to social services as well.” Collaboration. While participants endorsed that one way to keep students safe is to advocate and report sibling abuse to CPS agencies or local law enforcement authorities, they acknowledged that these strategies do not always stop the problem. Therefore, to keep students safe, participants shared that they also believed they needed to collaborate with parents and outside agencies to put support systems in place for the victim, offender and family. Valerie shared, “I feel like my best shot is to talk to the parents to see if there is something they can do to protect the child at home.” Tiffany noted, “If I can get the family on board, then hopefully we can get a lot more done.” At the same time, participants discussed that collaborating with parents can be problematic, especially if there is a history of family violence or parents dismiss sibling abuse as a serious problem. Ty mentioned, “I can help with the [sibling] competition and I can help with the conflict, but the violence and abuse are much too severe for a casual relationship—they need longer term help.” Therefore, beyond collaborating with parents, participants shared that to keep students safe from sibling violence and abuse, they also may need to solicit help from community-based counselors. Defining the line. The second theme that emerged from the participant data was defining the line. This theme was defined as participants’ shared attitudes and beliefs about how they delineated between healthy sibling rivalry and sibling violence or abuse. Participants endorsed that sibling abuse or violence was often viewed as “normal” in society, making it more difficult to identify and therefore report. Also, participants shared that students and parents may not differentiate harmful sibling aggression from healthy rivalry, and therefore students are likely being harmed. Although participants believed it was their role to respond to students, they shared that sibling abuse is difficult