? Given their history of family adversity, foster children are a high-risk population for negative sibling ? relationships and frequent physical aggression toward a sibling leading to increased risk for ? physical aggression toward other children i.e., non sibling peers. The foster placement context ? provides a critical window for timely and amenable youth violence prevention to alter the ? downward behavioral trajectories of children with histories of neglect. This study uses the ? context of the sibling relationship to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a youth violence ? prevention intervention. The goal of this application is to reduce sibling aggression which is ? prevalent in neglected children placed in foster homes and forecasts significant risk for youth ? violence. Sibling aggression among maltreated children remains a highly under identified and ? untreated problem. The failure to intervene represents a major public health concern. This ? intervention utilizes a tran-stheoretical model that implicates child vulnerabilities (altered cortisol ? and emotion dysregulation), sibling pair risk- (low positively, and poor conflict management), and ? foster parent- (non mediation) factors into a testable intervention model to decrease risk for sibling ? and peer physical aggression among young neglected children. The 'Promoting Sibling Bonds' ? intervention combines two promising short-term psychosocial sibling programs: Sibs Together ? (Bank, 2000; 2004) and Mediation-Based Intervention Strategy for Sibling Conflict (Smith & Ross, ? 2007) adapted to meet the needs of neglected children in the foster care system. The study ? involves two phases. In Phase 1 Intervention Development, we will refine and expand the ? intervention protocol, adapt and integrate manuals, train therapists (interventionists), make ? changes from iteration work, and try-out behavioral outcome measures. In Phase 2 ? Implementation of a controlled trial, we will recruit a sample of N = 144 children (nested in 72 ? pairs) between ages 5-8 years old; collect baseline data (wave1); randomize sibling pairs and ? their families (foster parent or biological parent for cases who reunite) to intervention and ? comparison groups, and collect post-intervention (wave2) and 6 months follow-up (wave3) ? outcome data of the adapted intervention. We hypothesize that at post-intervention (wave2), and ? again at follow-up (wave3), as compared to children assigned to the comparison 'usual care ? '(UC), children assigned to the experimental intervention condition (IC) will show improvement in ? reported sibling aggression, non sibling peer aggression, emotion dysregulation; and children will ? be more likely to exhibit a typical diurnal cortisol pattern. Sibling pairs will show improved ? relationship quality (positivity and negativity). The proportion of foster parents and sibling pairs ? who engage in conflict mediation, compromise, and reconciliation strategies will be higher in the ? intervention group. The public health impact of this intervention for violence prevention is high. ? Our innovative outcome model is a part of a second generation of studies aimed at integrating rich ? behavioral science and advances in neurobiology to better understand the multilevel change ? mechanisms in prevention trials. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Given their exposure to one or multiple forms of past familial violence, neglected children in foster care are a high-risk population for youth violence. We propose to adapt and evaluate a promising a multi component (child, sibling dyad, and foster parent) prevention intervention to reduce the risk of sibling and non sibling peer aggression among N = 144 neglected children (nested in pairs) between ages 5-8 placed in regular foster homes.
| Linares, L Oriana; Jimenez, Jessica; Nesci, Cristina et al. (2015) Reducing sibling conflict in maltreated children placed in foster homes. Prev Sci 16:211-21 |
| Linares, Lourdes Oriana; Shankar, Viswanathan; Diaz, Angela et al. (2015) Association Between Cumulative Psychosocial Risk and Cervical Human Papillomavirus Infection Among Female Adolescents in a Free Vaccination Program. J Dev Behav Pediatr 36:620-7 |
