published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

No description available.

The non-victimized siblings in incestuous families have often been ignored in research, literature, and treatment. This study explored these siblings' 1) relationship to the victim, 2) attribution of blame, and 3) adjustment. Participants were 30 non-victimized siblings of incest victims, between the ages of 8 and 14. They completed the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire, the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, the Self-perception Profile for Children, the Children's Depression Inventory, and a questionnaire developed for this research. Participants' scores were compared with the normative sample scores on several measures. Siblings perceived little warmth and closeness in their relationships to their victimized sisters. Rivalry and conflict were within normal limits. Siblings blamed victims and other family members less than expected, with the greatest amount of blame attributed to perpetrators. Adjustment was impaired. Males demonstrated less athletic competence, less global self-worth, more worry and oversensitivity than normative samples. Females showed a tendency toward less global self-worth and heightened general anxiety. Siblings' overall level of emotional distress was higher than most of the normative samples.

A multiple baseline design was employed to evaluate the effectiveness of a sibling training package including modeling, role-play, and feedback on play and engagement between children with autism and their siblings. The results of two experiments suggest that, following training, siblings of children with autism correctly implemented all trained interaction components. Additionally, Experiment II assessed and programmed generalization to other materials and a non-training setting. The results showed that some unprogrammed generalization to non-trained toys occurred. Conversely, siblings engaged in trained skills in a non-training setting (home) only following the experimenter's instructions to generalize. In both experiments, the siblings' overall engagement and physical proximity of play in training sessions increased significantly above baseline. This study extends previous research in that it includes additional stimulus and response generalization measures.

Sibling relationships are an important, yet under investigated aspect of foster care research. Despite the fact that between 65-85% of children in care have brothers and sisters, only recently have child welfare researchers begun to explore the complex and dynamic nature of sibling relationships in substitute care settings. Although cross-sectional and longitudinal studies suggest differences in placement stability and permanency outcomes for siblings placed together versus those placed separately, the conditions under which sibling relationships influence placement stability, permanency, and well-being in foster care settings remain unknown. This dissertation investigated how family dynamics and home setting characteristics influenced the likelihood of a foster care placement change for a sample of children who participated in a sibling relationship enhancement intervention (SIBS-FC) study. A conceptual model was proposed to help explain the circumstances which lead to foster care placement change, and the moderating effects of family living composition on the odds of placement change over an 18-month period were examined. Two multivariate statistical approaches were used in this investigation. The first approach involved examining the effects of a child's report of positive home integration, sibling relationship quality, caregiver's reported impact of child behavior, sibling living situation, kinship caregiver status, number of placements prior to study entry, and receipt of the SIBS-FC intervention on the odds of placement change. Results suggest that children in kinship care were 58% less likely to experience placement change than those who lived in non-relative care, and youth who lived apart from their siblings were 70% more likely to experience placement change than those who lived together. In the second statistical approach, living composition categories were constructed to understand the moderating effects of different living situations on the odds of placement change. Living composition categories included youth who lived in kinship care with their siblings, youth who lived in kinship care without their siblings, and youth who lived in non-relative care with their siblings, with youth in non-relative care who lived apart from their siblings serving as the referent category. Findings support a moderation effect for different categories of living composition, as well as a trend level effect for sibling relationship quality and odds of placement change. Living with one's sibling in kinship care decreased the odds of placement change by 75%, as compared to living apart from one's sibling in a non-relative foster home. A post-hoc analysis determined that all living composition categories were statistically different from one another in relative odds of a placement change. This dissertation provides additional evidence concerning the protective nature of kinship care and sibling co-placement on reducing the odds of experiencing a foster care placement change, and provides support for practices and policies prioritizing kinship care and the co-placement of siblings when making substitute care placement decisions. Future studies of siblings in foster care should explore the experiences of youth across the different forms of foster care living composition, examine the relationship between placement stability and permanency outcomes, and examine the relationship between placement stability, permanency, and child well-being.

Parental differential treatment (PDT), the within-family differences in parenting experienced by siblings (Rivers & Stoneman, 2008), has been linked to detrimental adjustment outcomes for children (e.g., Conger & Conger, 1994). The primary goal of this research was to more closely examine how differential treatment in two domains of parent-child relations-displays of warmth and hostility- were associated with child outcomes. A secondary data analysis was conducted on a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of a parent training intervention. Participants in this sample were high risk children and families, and they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an intensive parent training program, the parent training program plus a sibling intervention, or the community control group. Data were collected by multiple methods and from multiple reporting agents. Using baseline data from children (both older and younger siblings), mothers, observers and teachers, this study examined PDT agreement across two or more informants and whether PDT agreement was linked to child outcomes and also explored the extent to which these PDT domains were associated with both older and younger sibling's antisocial behavior. Using data collected at baseline and conclusion of the intervention from multiple informants, the study investigated whether the parenting intervention moderated the effect of PDT and the extent to which PDT was malleable. Agreement across two or more reporting agents of high PDT, especially for PDT-Hostility, was associated with worse outcomes for those children compared to children in the more egalitarian group. This research replicated previous studies in demonstrating that PDT is associated with negative child outcomes in some circumstances even when controlling for other child factors. The results from exploratory analyses in this study do not provide support for the idea that PDT is altered after participation in a parenting intervention; however, the findings do provide some evidence that the intervention moderates PDT. Specifically, negative PDT directed at the older sibling was more likely to be associated with negative outcomes in the absence of the intervention. Potential explanations for these findings are presented, and implications for future research are discussed.

No description available.

Thesis (MA(Psychology))-University of Pretoria, 2006. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

Sibling research in the past twenty years has moved away from a focus on particular variables such as sex differences, birth order, and rivalry, to a more searching investigation of the influences of sibling interaction. In this study the contribution of sibling dyads to cognitive growth is explored. Of particular interest were the implications of learning style for academic performance. To investigate the informal learning context of black township children from an ecological perspective, the household family structure and community networks are also considered. Twenty eight sibling dyads were divided into two groups on the basis of tutor's age. The older group comprised ten to thirteen year olds, and the younger group six to nine year olds. Each tutor had a younger sibling, not attending pre-school, who was the tutee for the tasks. Tutor-pairs were presented with puzzle-tasks designed to test Western-type academic competencies. Videotaped interactions were subjected to a behavioural micro-analysis coded into seven categories, originally devised for a previous study of mother-child interaction that utilised the same tasks, and adapted to highlight certain teaching strategies. Vygotsky's (1978) zone of proximal development provides the matrix for the discussion of results in conjunction with Feuerstein's (1980) concept of mediated learning experiences which are interpreted within a multicultural context. Using both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the findings are presented in terms of teaching style. Age and sex differences are discussed. Comparisons are made between this study, other local studies, and an American sample. Related research findings, including crosscultural studies, are considered in relation to the particular problems of black education. Home interviews yielded information about educational and occupational levels in the community studied. These provide the setting for sibling transmission of culture. Family caretaking roles reveal a broad social base for urban blacks, with siblings contributing a substantial proportion. Educational perspectives, as well as future research possibilities, are considered. The results suggest that despite the limitations of child tutors due to varying maturational factors, siblings can offer a unique resource for promoting and extending intrafamilial cognitive growth, particularly for a society in transition. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1986.