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Siblings matters: the impact of coming out on relationship between siblings
Journal Title: TERAPIA FAMILIARE 
Author/s: Patrizia Petiva, Maddalena Spirito 
Year:  2020 Issue: 122 Language: Italian 
Pages:  17 Pg. 7-23 FullText PDF:  91 KB
DOI:  10.3280/TF2020-122002
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While the scientific literature about gender variant children and adolescents focuses mainly on the child diagnosed with gender dysphoria and on the parental couple, less attention is payed to the siblings and their relational dynamics. Siblings are considered too often exclusively depending on their gender variant brother’s/sister’s condition, as satellites which gravitate around Dysphoria planet. Instead, the fraternal relationship is an important support for the family system as a whole. In the last two years part of our work has been focused on the siblings system after the coming out. As regards the temporal dimension, we observed the modification of the relational dynamics within and outside the family system since the coming out. In this time frame the siblings’ system, as well as the whole family system, redefines its internal dimension and its relationships towards other reference points (parents, school, society). Helping siblings to express and comprehend their emotional states in a safe and empathic environment is indispensable during this phase. The clinic case is presented as an example about how when the family system tends to exclude the younger siblings from the dynamics started by the coming out of the older one as a consequence, younger siblings can experience social difficulties, trasgressive behaviors, bullying episodes towards peers.
Keywords: Siblings, gender variant children, coming out, adolescence, bullying.

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Patrizia Petiva, Maddalena Spirito, Siblings matters: the impact of coming out on relationship between siblings in "TERAPIA FAMILIARE" 122/2020, pp. 7-23, DOI:10.3280/TF2020-122002

   

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