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Sibling Issues in Foster Care and Adoption
Bulletin for Professionals

Author(s):  Child Welfare Information Gateway

Year Published:  2006

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You are in section: Table of Contents 1 - Defining a Sibling Relationship 2 - The Importance of Siblings 3 - Sibling Relationships in Abusive or Neglectful… 4 - Benefits of Placing Siblings Together 5 - Barriers to Placing Siblings Together 6 - Policies and Practices for Keeping Siblings… 7 - When Siblings Cannot Live Together 8 - Maintaining Ties Between Separated Siblings 9 - Sibling Issues Within the Foster or Adoptive… 10 - Resources for Promoting Intact Placement of… References

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7. When Siblings Cannot Live Together

Despite agency policy or a caseworker's best efforts, a number of situations may lead to siblings being placed separately. This initial separation can lead to permanent separation if an agency does not make ongoing, concerted efforts to place the children together. Both policy and practice should promote ongoing efforts to reunite separated siblings. Common dilemmas regarding separated siblings include the following:

• An infant may come into care and be placed in a foster or pre-adoptive home before workers have determined that the infant has siblings already in foster care or in adoptive homes. The foster or pre-adoptive parents of the infant may then argue against the removal of the infant from their home. To avoid this dilemma, agencies should establish whether or not any infant or child coming into care has siblings already in placement. If so, strong efforts should be made to place the infant with siblings.
  
  
• In some cases of separated siblings, foster parents may want to adopt only the sibling placed with them. Workers are put in the unenviable position of choosing the lesser of two evils—allowing the child to be adopted without his or her siblings, or keeping the child in foster care until a family can be found who will adopt all of the siblings. To reduce the likelihood of this situation, foster parents should always be told at the time of placement that reuniting siblings is a top priority of the agency. Whatever decision is made, there should be provisions for maintaining connections with both the foster parents and siblings.
  
  
• A similar dilemma occurs when a sibling group placement disrupts because the foster parents cannot handle one of the sibling's behavior but they want to continue parenting the others. The worker must decide whether to remove just the one child or the entire sibling group. Another alternative would be to have a temporary specialized placement for the sibling with behavior problems if the foster parents are willing to work toward reintegrating this child into their family.

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When a Sibling is Abusive

Whenever there is a concern that one sibling poses a safety risk to another, a thorough assessment needs to occur. Distinctions need to be made between sexually reactive behavior (inappropriate sexual touching or fondling between children close in age) and sexual abuse by a more powerful sibling of another. If there is significant abuse that does not respond to treatment or if the risk of re-occurrence is high, the abusing sibling may need to be moved to another placement.

Physical aggression within the normal range of sibling relationships needs to be differentiated from physical abuse or victimization of a weaker sibling. Also, the severity of the abusive behavior needs to be assessed and a determination made as to whether the safety risks are moderate and can be managed through closer supervision, therapeutic parenting, and clinical treatment to change behaviors.

Victimization of one sibling by another should not be ignored. Research indicates that the impact of sexual abuse by a sibling is just as harmful to the victim as sexual abuse by a parent or stepparent. In fact, one study found that penetration occurred more commonly in sibling incest (71 percent), than in incest between a father or stepfather and a child (35 percent) (Cyr, Wright, McDuff, & Perron, 2002). Hence, children should be protected from abuse by a sibling just as they are protected from abuse by caretakers. In some cases, it may be possible to work toward reunification after a period of treatment for the offending sibling.

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You are in section: Table of Contents 1 - Defining a Sibling Relationship 2 - The Importance of Siblings 3 - Sibling Relationships in Abusive or Neglectful… 4 - Benefits of Placing Siblings Together 5 - Barriers to Placing Siblings Together 6 - Policies and Practices for Keeping Siblings… 7 - When Siblings Cannot Live Together 8 - Maintaining Ties Between Separated Siblings 9 - Sibling Issues Within the Foster or Adoptive… 10 - Resources for Promoting Intact Placement of… References

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Updated on September 18, 2008