Integrating Parents' Views on Sibling Relationships to Tailor an Evidence‐based Parenting Intervention for Sibling Conflict

Abstract

Parents play a crucial role in the development of their children's relationships with their siblings. Despite this, relatively few evidence-based parenting programs exist that specifically offer parents the strategies and techniques they desire and require for managing their children's sibling relationships. One way of bridging this gap is to design a tailored parenting intervention for sibling relationships that incorporates the parent voice in various aspects of program design. The current study recruited a convenience sample of 409 Australian parents to complete an online survey relating to their views on difficult sibling behaviors and what, if any, help they desire in dealing with the issue. The majority of respondents were Caucasian, middle-to upper-class mothers. Respondents predominantly attributed the causes of sibling conflict to their child's internal traits, but expressed strong desire for assistance with managing behavioral problems, especially when sibling relationships were marked by physical aggression. Respondents reported high levels of acceptability for positive, rather than punitive, parenting strategies and showed a clear preference for parenting interventions delivered in easy-to-access formats. The findings are interpreted in the context of guiding the development of a tailored parenting intervention for enhancing sibling relationships and reducing conflict.

Innovation, engagement, and the evaluation of a parenting intervention for improving sibling relationships

“…The findings also demonstrate that the process of engaging the community to help co-construct the intervention has at least been partially been validated. Pickering and Sanders (2015b) provided parent survey data supporting the decision to adapt the Triple P brief discussion group "managing fighting and aggression" used in this study. Although the current results do provide promising signs for the value of this intervention, the absence of significant findings on a number of specific outcome measures suggests further testing of the intervention is required.…”

“…The current findings also point to the notion that researchers must be careful to not over-value any single source of information in designing programs. For example, the data from Pickering and Sanders (2015b) showed a clear parental preference for brief interventions. However, it is plausible that the issue of sibling conflict may require more intensive support than what parents might ideally desire.…”

“…Research demonstrates that parents regard sibling conflict, especially among younger children, as a highly prevalent behavioural problem in their families and an issue they are eager to seek assistance with (Brody & Stoneman, 1987;Kramer, 2004;Pickering & Sanders, 2015b;Ralph et al, 2003). Howe, Aquan-Assee, and Bukowski (2001) examined the importance of mothers in influencing sibling relations to explore the extent to which mothers' attentiveness and responsivity impacted sibling behaviour.…”

“…Research clearly shows that parents regard sibling conflict as a highly prevalent behavioural problem in their families and an issue they are eager to seek assistance with (Brody & Stoneman, 1987;Kramer, 2004;Pickering & Sanders, 2015b;Ralph et al, 2003). Parental involvement in sibling interactions has been shown to have a strong bearing on sibling relationships (Kramer, 2004).…”

“…In the first phase of application of their consumer engagement model, Pickering and Sanders (2015b) conducted a survey to help inform the development of an intervention for sibling conflict.…”