Nonintervention into siblings' fighting as a catalyst for learned helplessness

Abstract

The hypothesis that siblings fight simply to attract adults' attention has enjoyed much speculation and some study of children's fighting in recent years. Current research indicates that refusing to intervene causes fighting to wane, supposedly because children will adequately solve problems by themselves if left to do so. The phenomenon of learned helplessness, in which lethargy and despair result from an inability to escape pain, has been applied to battered spouses. This work tests the hypothesis that nonintervention into siblings' fighting is more likely to allow one child to establish superiority over another and that fighting stops because the defeated learns helplessness in the manner of an abused spouse. Implications and alternative methods of dealing with fighting are explored.