Expert Explains How Duggar Family’s Size May Have Contributed to ‘Messy Boundaries’

NEED TO KNOW

• Joseph Duggar is accused of molesting a 9-year-old child, while his brother, Josh, is currently serving a prison sentence for a child sex abuse material conviction

• Trauma therapist Shari Botwin spoke to PEOPLE about how growing up in such a large family could have led to “messy” boundaries

• Joseph’s child molestation charge was filed in Florida

The controversial Duggar family is back in the news after Joseph Duggar was charged with molesting a 9-year-old girl.

The charges against Joseph, who starred on the TLC reality series 19 Kids and Counting, came five years after his brother Josh Duggar went to prison following a conviction of receiving and possessing material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Joseph is charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years old in Florida and also faces unrelated charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment in his home state of Arkansas.

Trauma therapist Shari Botwin, a licensed clinical social worker and author of the book Stolen Childhoods: Thriving After Abuse, tells PEOPLE that it’s possible the size of the Duggar family could have contributed to “messy” boundaries growing up.

“What I’m picturing is that some of the older siblings might’ve been more parent-ified [in a family with 19 kids], they might’ve had too much power, they might’ve felt like it was their responsibility to fill in the missing gaps,” Botwin says. “While that can be a loving way to think, it can also be a problem if you take that feeling and you turn it into more like, ‘I have power over this person or I’m responsible for this person.’ So the boundaries in that system can get messy.”

Botwin also adds that there is a possibility that being in a family so big has led to “trauma-bonding.”

“Inadvertently, there’s going to be neglect or some of the kids are going to feel abandoned or they’re going to feel like they don’t matter,” Botwin says. “And all these feelings can lead to enmeshment, can lead to boundary problems, can lead to power issues, power hierarchy, where the older siblings may take it upon themselves.”

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Joseph was arrested on March 18 in Tontitown, Ark., where he and his wife, Kendra, live.

Kendra was subsequently arrested and also charged with false imprisonment and child endangerment. The charges are not related to her husband’s Florida case. She was released on bond.

Joseph is currently in custody in Arkansas and will need to be extradited to Florida to face the charges there.

Read the original article on People