Impact of a Structured Intervention on Sibling Relationships: Changes in Conflict, Support, and Resilience through Latent Transition Analysis

Introduction. Siblings are a ubiquitous and fundamental relationship in many children's lives. Healthy sibling relationships and their continuity, however, can be threatened when children are placed into child foster care. Children in care are at higher risk of relational discontinuity not only from separation from their parents, but also from their siblings. A youth development intervention aims to reunite siblings and strengthen their connections by fostering positive interactions and shared experiences with siblings and other youth in care. Given sibling relationships and youth development interventions are multidimensional, it is necessary to examine the impacts of the program on youth outcomes simultaneously, using person-centered modeling approaches. Understanding youth changes from this viewpoint can provide deeper insight into a program’s impact beyond the individual outcomes and support the development of programs and services targeting multiple developmental outcomes.

Methods. The study sample consisted of 1,635 children who attended a brief camp-based reunification program between 2015-2019. Pre-test post-test assessments were completed by the youth at the beginning and end of camp participation. To identify distinct subgroups of participants, Latent Profile Analysis with 1-5 models were performed on the pre-test and post-test data. Constructs included an 11-item measure of youth resilience (pre-alpha=.81, post-alpha=.85), 7-item measure of sibling support (pre-alpha=.83, post-alpha=.83), and a two-item measure of sibling conflict (pre-alpha=.69, post-alpha=.77). Goodness of fit indices were computed and compared across models, using AIC, BIC, and entropy. Latent Transition Analysis investigated whether and how participants shifted between the latent profiles over time. A Chi-Square Analysis determined if transitions in profile membership between pre-test and post-test were statistically significant.

Results. The latent profile analysis identified a three-profile solution—Negative, Modest, and Positive well-being groups—as the best fit for both pre-test and post-test phases (pre-test: BIC = 13,482.23, Entropy = 0.63; post-test: BIC = 13,110.00, Entropy = 0.84). In the Latent Transition Analysis, initial probabilities show the Modest profile had the highest probability of membership at pre-test (55.67%, N=719), followed by the Positive (29.49%, N=766) and Negative (14.85%, N=150) profiles. Youths in the negative profile had a 21.38% probability of moving to the Modest profile and a 9.96% chance to the Positive profile. Similarly, those in the Modest profile had a 16.87% likelihood of transitioning to the Positive profile, indicating improvement to youth well-being following camp attendance. The proportion of youth in the Positive Group increased from 46.6% to 72.0%, while the Negative Group declined from 9.1% to 6.5%. A significant Chi-square result (χ² = 164.865, p < .001) confirmed meaningful shifts in group membership, highlighting the intervention's positive and multidimensional impact.

Discussion. The intervention provided a supportive environment for sibling interactions by concurrently reducing conflict, enhancing sibling support, and strengthening youth resilience. Transitions between profiles emphasize the potential for brief, camp-based reunification to produce meaningful change, particularly for youth experiencing relational challenges. Findings also highlight the importance of adopting a person-centered approach to data analysis and intervention delivery.