The complex relationship between sibling contact and child and family well-being in foster care: An exploration of child and family functioning in a pre-permanency cohort

Julia M. Herbster and Kerrie Ocasio

Children and Youth Services Review, 2021, vol. 131, issue C

Abstract: U.S. policy promotes sibling visitation when siblings cannot be placed in foster care homes together, however, when siblings are placed separately, many do not receive visits and there is little research examining the impact of separation and visitation. This study examined child and family well-being for 1) siblings that were not in placement together but had visits, 2) siblings that are not in placement together and do not have visits, and 3) children who are not split from their siblings or have no siblings, using pre-service referral and assessment data of children and caregivers (n = 259) from a clinical pre-adoption program. Multivariate analysis indicated that sibling visits, increased parenting stress, increased child behavioral problems and older age of children were all negatively related to parent ratings of child integration into the family (i.e. sense of belonging). Although more research is needed, these findings suggest that when co-placement is not available special attention should be given to sibling visitation and the possible conflicts of loyalty that can arise and interfere with supportive integration into the foster home.

Keywords: Sibling connections; Foster care; Child welfare; Child well-being; Child welfare policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740921003339
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:131:y:2021:i:c:s0190740921003339

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106257

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().