Exploring mechanisms of change in a dyadic relationship intervention for siblings in foster care.

There is increasing recognition of the potential for sibling relationships to promote the well-being of youth in out-of-home care. Efficacious interventions now exist to strengthen the sibling relationships for youth in out-of-home care, yet the processes through which these interventions work to enhance sibling relationships remains largely speculative. The current study therefore aimed to identify the critical components of an efficacious dyadic relationship enhancement intervention for siblings in foster care through a secondary analysis of fidelity of implementation and trial outcome data. Data for 168 youth from the treatment condition of the Supporting Siblings in Foster Care study were analysed. Fidelity of implementation was assessed across seven intervention domains: Sibs 4 Life, Positive/Sib Thinking, Activity Planning, Problem Solving, Cooperation, Managing Feelings and Adult Allies. Trial outcome data were drawn from efficacy test results and included a multi-agent construct of sibling relationship quality. Descriptive statistics detailed intervention implementation, and hierarchical linear models examined associations between intervention coverage, comprehension, and engagement, and 18-month improvements to the sibling relationship. Results indicate high fidelity to implementation, and Positive/Sib Thinking was the primary intervention domain associated with sibling relationship improvements. Considerations for future mechanisms-based intervention research with siblings in out-of-home care are provided.

Validation of a Measure of Foster Home Integration for Foster Youth.

OBJECTIVES: This article introduces a youth-reported measure (Essential Youth Experiences [EYE]) developed to assess the experiences of foster youth in their home environment and their critical relationships across a number of service systems. Empirically, the article reports on the psychometric properties of a 9-item scale within the EYE that measures the construct of positive home integration (PHI). METHODS: The EYE was administered to 328 preadolescent and adolescent youth (164 sibling dyads) enrolled in a larger randomized clinical trial. RESULTS: Correlational analysis suggests that the PHI Scale shows good psychometric properties and strong current and predictive validity. CONCLUSION: The PHI is a reliable and valid scale that measures youth perspectives of inclusion in the foster home and relationships with their foster care provider. This scale quickly gathers youth perspectives and differentiates between youth who have more versus less significant needs. Implications for research and social work practice are discussed.

A longitudinal analysis of school discipline events among youth in foster care.

Youth in foster care experience major deficits on standardized measures of academic functioning, are at high risk of academic failure, and are more likely than their non-foster peers to be disciplined at school. School discipline-related problems increase risk of problematic educational and behavioral outcomes including dropping out of school, repeating a grade, and engagement in delinquent and criminal behavior. Identifying which youth are at greatest risk for experiencing school discipline is needed in order to improve the educational experiences of youth in foster care. The current investigation examined the effects of youth and contextual characteristics on school discipline events among 315 youth in foster care. Results revealed that being male, in a higher-grade, and a student of color, living apart from one's sibling, and school mobility significantly predicted discipline events. An additional statistical model divided youth into groups based on race, sex, and disability status taking into account the multiple identities youth have. These results suggest that gender, race, and disability status cumulatively inform school discipline experienced among youth in foster care.

Foster home integration as a temporal indicator of relational well-being.

This study sought to identify factors that contribute to the relational well-being of youth in substitute care. Using data from the [BLIND] study, youth responded to a 9-item measure of positive home integration, a scale designed to assess the relational experiences of youth to their caregivers and their integration into the foster home. Data were collected from youth in six month intervals, for an 18-month period of time. Latent growth curve modeling procedures were employed to determine if child, family, and case characteristics influenced youth's home integration trajectories. Results suggest stability in youth reports of home integration over time; however, children who were older at the time of study enrollment and youth who experienced placement changes during the period of observation experienced decreased home integration during the 18-month period. Results suggest youth's perspectives of home integration may in part be a function of the child's developmental stage and their experiences with foster care placement instability. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Network Indicators of the Social Ecology of Adolescents in Relative and Non-Relative Foster Households.

Though the presence, composition, and quality of social relationships-particularly as found in family networks-has an important influence on adolescent well-being, little is known about the social ecology of youth in foster care. This study examined the social networks of foster youth participating in a large RCT of an intervention for siblings in foster care. Youth reported on the people they lived with and the relatives they were in contact with, which provided indicators of network size, composition, and relationship quality. Cluster analysis was used to identify five family network profiles for youth living in foster homes. Two identified subgroups reflected robust family networks where youth were living with relative caregiver(s) and related youth, and also reported multiple family ties outside the household, including with biological parents. The remaining three profiles reflected youth reports of fewer family connections within or beyond the foster household, with distinctions by whether they lived with siblings and/or reported having positive relationships with their mothers and/or fathers. The identified network profiles were validated using youth- and caregiver-reported measures of mental health functioning, with increased caregiver report of post-traumatic stress symptoms indicated for the three subgroups that were not characterized by a robust family network.

Foster care placement change: The role of family dynamics and household composition.

Sibling co-placement and kinship care have each been shown to protect against the occurrence of placement change for youth in substitute care. However, little is known about the effects of different combinations of sibling placement and relative caregiver status on placement change. Nor does the field fully understand how family dynamics may differ in these households. Utilizing data from the Supporting Siblings in Foster Care study, this paper examines family dynamics across four typologies of living composition, and tests the effects of living composition membership on the odds of experiencing a placement change over an 18-month period of time. Findings suggest that across living composition typologies, children who were placed separately from their siblings in non-relative care were more likely to be older, have more extensive placement histories, and experience more placement changes both prior to and during the study than were children in other living composition groups. Family living composition was found to influence the occurrence of placement change. Specifically, children co-placed in kinship care were least likely to experience movement; however, sibling co-placement in non-relative care was also protective. Results reveal the need to conduct additional research into the experiences of children in different family living arrangements, and tailor case management services and supports to children in substitute care accordingly. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Intervening to Improve Outcomes for Siblings in Foster Care: Conceptual, Substantive, and Methodological Dimensions of a Prevention Science Framework.

In recent years, the child welfare field has devoted significant attention to siblings in foster care. Policymakers and practitioners have supported efforts to connect siblings via shared foster placements and visitation while researchers have focused on illuminating the empirical foundations of sibling placement and sibling intervention in child welfare. The current paper synthesizes literature on sibling relationship development and sibling issues in child welfare in the service of presenting a typology of sibling-focused interventions for use with foster youth. The paper provides two examples of current intervention research studies focused on enhancing sibling developmental processes and understanding their connection to child welfare outcomes. The paper concludes by presenting an emerging agenda informing policy, practice, and research on siblings in foster care.

Alcohol and Substance Use in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: The Role of Siblings.

Interpersonal relationships both within and outside the family have been a central part of alcohol and substance use research. Many studies have focused on the role of parents and peers; fewer studies have focused on siblings. This paper examined siblings' roles in ATOD use patterns and trajectories in the context of familial and non-familial factors across time. First, intraclass correlations (ICCs) were used to examine the degree to which older siblings' ATOD use was associated with younger siblings' ATOD use. Second, hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the degree to which individual, parent, sibling and peer factors over time were associated with adolescents' and young adults' ATOD use. It should be noted that developmentally proximal predictors were utilized in these models and within-family replication was also examined. Results demonstrate strong associations between older and younger siblings' ATOD use. Moreover, the developmentally proximal sibling variables were predictive of younger sibling ATOD use in the context of other variables across all substances. Study findings are discussed in terms of identifying promising and potentially malleable points of intervention for future investigators.

Visualizing and Describing Foster Care Placement Pathways.

This paper introduces a flowchart-based methodology for describing the movement of foster youth in and out of placements of differing types and durations. This longitudinal methodology is designed to be sufficiently simple to appeal to policymakers and administrators seeking to chart the movement of groups of youth over time and the sequencing of their placements, and sufficiently descriptive to be of use to researchers seeking to predict the placement trajectories of subgroups of foster youth. The paper provides an example of the use of the method drawing upon state administrative data from a large study of preadolescent and adolescent youth in foster care situated in Oregon. Implications for the application of the methodology to different issues of interest to researchers, policymakers, and administrators are discussed.

An intervention to improve sibling relationship quality among youth in foster care: Results of a randomized clinical trial.

Sibling programming is an important part of a prevention framework, particularly for youth in foster care. After children are removed from their families and placed into foster care in the aftermath of maltreatment, the sibling relationship is often the most viable ongoing relationship available to the child, and may be critical to a youth's sense of connection, emotional support, and continuity. The promise of dyadic sibling programming in particular rests on the ability of interventions to enhance the quality of sibling relationships; yet little research exists that suggests that sibling interventions can improve relationship quality among foster youth. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effects of a specific dyadic sibling-focused intervention for older and younger siblings on sibling relationship quality. One hundred sixty four dyads (328 youth) participated in the study, with each dyad consisting of an older sibling between 11 and 15 years of age at baseline and a younger sibling separated in age by less than 4 years. Hierarchical linear models were applied to self-reported, observer-reported and observational data over the 18-month study period. Findings suggest that the sibling intervention holds promise for improving sibling relationship quality among youth in foster care. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Trajectories of Health and Behavioral Health Services Use among Community Corrections-Involved Rural Adults.

This article seeks to establish time-based trajectories of health and behavioral health services utilization for community corrections-involved (CCI) adults and to examine demographic and clinical correlates associated with these trajectories. To accomplish this aim, the authors applied a latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to services use data from a sample of rural CCI adults who reported their medical, mental health, and substance use treatment utilization behavior every 60 days for 1.5 years. LCGA established 1.5-year trajectories and demographic correlates of health services among rural CCI adults. For medical services, three classes emerged (stable-low users, 13%; stable-intermediate users, 40%; and stable-high users, 47%). For mental health and substance use services, three classes emerged (stable-low, 69% and 61%, respectively; low-baseline-increase, 10% and 12%, respectively; high-baseline decline, 21% and 28%, respectively). Employment, gender, medication usage, and depression severity predicted membership across all services. Results underscore the importance of social workers and other community services providers aligning health services access with the needs of the CCI population, and highlight CCI adults as being at risk of underservice in critical prevention and intervention domains.

Sibling relationship contributions to individual and family well-being: introduction to the special issue.

This special issue presents new findings that illustrate the ways in which sibling relationships serve as important contexts for individual development and family functioning. This collection of articles, which emphasizes effects on both normative and at-risk development, is intended to stimulate further research on the multifaceted and often contradictory contributions siblings extend to one another across the life course.

The consequences of antisocial behavior in older male siblings for younger brothers and sisters.

The contribution of younger male and female siblings' conflict and involvement in deviant activities with their older brothers to younger siblings' adolescent adjustment problems was examined in the context of parenting. Ineffective parenting during younger siblings' childhood had no direct effects on adjustment but facilitated their exposure to older brothers' deviant peers and activities. The effect of sibling conflict on adjustment was mediated by younger siblings' coparticipation in deviant activities with their older brothers during adolescence. Early sibling conflict and coparticipation in deviant activities synergistically increased the risk for younger siblings' adolescent adjustment problems. These empirical relations held in the context of parental discipline of younger siblings during adolescence. Sibling relationships entail a set of iterative social processes that strongly influence risk for adolescent antisocial behavior, drug use, sexual behavior, and traumatic experience. Variations in sibling influence were observed conditional on the gender combination of the sibling pair and on sibling age differences.

Older siblings benefit from a family-based preventive intervention for preschoolers at risk for conduct problems.

This study evaluated sibling effects of a family-based intervention aimed at preventing conduct problems in preschool-age siblings of adjudicated youths. Ninety-two families of preschoolers who had older siblings adjudicated for delinquent acts were randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions. Of these, 47 families had nontargeted school-age (5-11 years) or adolescent siblings (12-17 years) living at home. These families were considered in this report. The authors hypothesized group differences on antisocial behavior and positive peer relations for older siblings of targeted preschoolers. The authors examined outcomes of parent- and teacher-reported behavior immediately postintervention and 8 months postintervention. Findings revealed significant intervention effects 8 months following intervention for adolescent siblings on parent-reported antisocial behavior and positive peer relations. Teacher reports confirmed group differences for antisocial behavior immediately postintervention. Findings document benefits for adolescent siblings.

Adult sibling expressed emotion and fellow sibling deviance: a new piece of the family process puzzle.

Seventy-three older siblings were assessed in early adulthood with the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) measure of expressed emotion. Sibling critical expressed emotion was linked with younger brother concomitant and future antisocial behavior, substance use, deviant peer association, increased rate of criminal arrests, and early onset sexual activity. Siblings of younger brothers with behavior problems were also more likely to be critical of, and to report negative relationships with, these brothers than were siblings of well-adjusted brothers. Sibling critical expressed emotion also predicted younger brothers' maladjustment 1-2 years later, after controlling for earlier sibling conflict and parent discipline. The findings accentuate the importance of understanding the influence of intrafamilial processes in the etiology of behavior problems.

The role of adolescent friends, romantic partners, and siblings in the emergence of the adult antisocial lifestyle.

This study investigated the contribution of social processes in boys' adolescent relationships in 3 key domains--same-sex friends, cross-sex romantic partners, and younger siblings--to continued association with delinquent peers in young adulthood and, therefore, to continuance of an antisocial lifestyle. It was hypothesized that levels of negative interaction and antisocial talk observed during problem-solving discussions would be associated across the 3 domains. The influences of negative interactions and antisocial talk in the adolescent relationships on young-adult delinquent peer association were compared in 2 mediational models. It was posited that antisocial talk would be more predictive of continued association with delinquent peers than would negative interactions. Hypotheses were tested on an at-risk sample of young men (the Oregon Youth Study). Findings were generally in keeping with the hypotheses.

Development and feasibility of a sibling intervention for youth in foster care.

Due to their ubiquity and possible influence on youth mental health, academic, and other outcomes, sibling-focused intervention strategies may be important for the development and implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in child welfare. However, there is no rigorous evidence as to either the best methods for, or feasibility of, incorporating the sibling link within existing clinical treatments for foster youth. This paper applies the literature on evidence-based practices (EBP) and implementation research in child welfare to sibling-focused intervention; and presents data concerning the development, delivery, cost, and feasibility of a novel sibling-focused intervention program, Supporting Siblings in Foster Care (SIBS-FC). Results suggest that despite the challenges and costs involved with delivering SIBS-FC, the program catered to the diverse needs of pre-adolescent and adolescent siblings living together and apart, was viewed positively by youth, and was implemented with a high degree of fidelity. These findings underscore the importance of attending to the early-stage development of psychosocial interventions in child welfare and highlight the role of interagency collaboration, program planning, staff training and supervision, and fidelity tracking for EBP development in child welfare. Implications for prevention research and sibling-focused intervention programming in child welfare are discussed.

Internalizing and externalizing symptoms in young children exposed to intimate partner violence: examining intervening processes.

Children's emotion dysregulation, children's appraisals, maternal psychological functioning, and harsh discipline were investigated as potential mediators in the putative link between exposure to intimate partner violence and poor child outcomes. Participants included 132 children ages 6-8 and their mothers who had been enrolled in a longitudinal study of parenting and children's social development. The mothers were receiving some form of government-based economic assistance or other social services, and were currently involved in a romantic relationship. Results of structural equation modeling indicated children's emotion dysregulation mediated the links between exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and both internalizing and externalizing problems. Harsh discipline mediated the link between exposure to IPV and externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms. Child appraisals and maternal psychological functioning mediated the link between exposure to IPV and internalizing, but not externalizing, symptoms.

Assessing children's exposure to intimate partner violence.

Child exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) is widely acknowledged as a threat to the psycho-social and academic well-being of children. Unfortunately, as reflected in the literature, the specific link between such exposure and childhood outcomes is ambiguous. Based on a review of the literature, this article suggests that this state of affairs is due, in part, to the manner with which exposure to IPV is operationally defined. After reviewing the dominant strategies for operationally defining exposure to IPV and the problems associated with those strategies, this article reports original data contrasting three measures derived from maternal reports, three measures derived from child reports, and the limited concordance among those different indices of exposure to IPV. The implications of these findings for research on child outcomes and the clinical assessment of children who might have been exposed to IPV are discussed.

The contribution of parents and siblings to antisocial and depressive behavior in adolescents: a double jeopardy coercion model.

A dual coercion model of family processes associated with the development of antisocial and depressive behavior during adolescence was assessed, using an at-risk sample of families and children. Consistent with the model, involvement in family coercion during childhood and adolescence increased both boys' and girls' risk for antisocial behavior in adolescence and girls' risk for depressive behavior. Coercive family processes served as a link between older and younger siblings' antisocial behavior. Childhood exposure to maternal depression predicted boys' and girls' depressive behavior 10 years later, but this association was not mediated by coercion. The data suggest that family risk factors and processes for antisocial development are similar for boys and girls but pathways to depression may be gender specific.