diff --git a/requirements-test.txt b/requirements-test.txt
index a0f5aea..b98770a 100644
--- a/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/requirements-test.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Django>=1.6
 djangorestframework>=2.4.3
-pytest-django==2.6
+pytest-django==2.9.1
 pytest==2.5.2
 pytest-cov==1.6
 flake8==2.2.2
diff --git a/rest_framework_xml/parsers.py b/rest_framework_xml/parsers.py
index 5454356..7e1bd4a 100644
--- a/rest_framework_xml/parsers.py
+++ b/rest_framework_xml/parsers.py
@@ -37,6 +37,13 @@ def parse(self, stream, media_type=None, parser_context=None):
 
         return data
 
+    def _check_xml_list(self, element):
+        """
+        Checks that an element has multiple tags and that they are all the same,
+        to validate that the element is a properly formatted list
+        """
+        return len(element) > 1 and len(set([child.tag for child in element])) <= 1
+
     def _xml_convert(self, element):
         """
         convert the xml `element` into the corresponding python object
@@ -48,7 +55,7 @@ def _xml_convert(self, element):
             return self._type_convert(element.text)
         else:
             # if the fist child tag is list-item means all children are list-item
-            if children[0].tag == "list-item":
+            if self._check_xml_list(element):
                 data = []
                 for child in children:
                     data.append(self._xml_convert(child))
diff --git a/tests/test_parsers.py b/tests/test_parsers.py
index b04af4a..3e5597a 100644
--- a/tests/test_parsers.py
+++ b/tests/test_parsers.py
@@ -52,6 +52,49 @@ def setUp(self):
                 }
             ]
         }
+        self._invalid_list_input = StringIO(
+            '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>'
+            '<root>'
+            '<list>'
+            '<list-item><sub_id>1</sub_id><sub_name>first</sub_name></list-item>'
+            '<list-item2><sub_id>2</sub_id><sub_name>second</sub_name></list-item2>'
+            '<list-item2><sub_id>3</sub_id><sub_name>third</sub_name></list-item2>'
+            '</list>'
+            '</root>'
+        )
+        self._invalid_list_output = {
+            "list": {
+                "list-item": {
+                    "sub_id": 1,
+                    "sub_name": "first"
+                },
+                "list-item2": {
+                    "sub_id": 3,
+                    "sub_name": "third"
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        self._valid_list_input = StringIO(
+            '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>'
+            '<root>'
+            '<list>'
+            '<list-item><sub_id>1</sub_id><sub_name>first</sub_name></list-item>'
+            '<list-item><sub_id>2</sub_id><sub_name>second</sub_name></list-item>'
+            '</list>'
+            '</root>'
+        )
+        self._valid_list_output = {
+            "list": [
+                {
+                    "sub_id": 1,
+                    "sub_name": "first"
+                },
+                {
+                    "sub_id": 2,
+                    "sub_name": "second"
+                }
+            ]
+        }
 
     @unittest.skipUnless(etree, 'defusedxml not installed')
     def test_parse(self):
@@ -64,3 +107,15 @@ def test_complex_data_parse(self):
         parser = XMLParser()
         data = parser.parse(self._complex_data_input)
         self.assertEqual(data, self._complex_data)
+
+    @unittest.skipUnless(etree, 'defusedxml not installed')
+    def test_invalid_list_parse(self):
+        parser = XMLParser()
+        data = parser.parse(self._invalid_list_input)
+        self.assertEqual(data, self._invalid_list_output)
+
+    @unittest.skipUnless(etree, 'defusedxml not installed')
+    def test_valid_list_parse(self):
+        parser = XMLParser()
+        data = parser.parse(self._valid_list_input)
+        self.assertEqual(data, self._valid_list_output)