Virtual Resource Kit: Importance of Maintaining Sibling Relationships & Connections

Posted June 5, 2023

Sibling relationships are often the longest relationships we will have in our lifetimes. As a parent or a caregiver of siblings, you have an opportunity to encourage and facilitate contact between siblings—even if they are not living together. Maintaining the bonds and connections between siblings now can empower and strengthen their relationships well into their adult lives.

Tip Sheets

Parenting Siblings Connected Through Trauma

Siblings who share a trauma history can sometimes form trauma bonds. This tip sheet offers parenting tips and strategies to help parents and caregivers navigate this complex bond with their children.

Sustaining & Strengthening the Sibling Bond

Sometimes siblings are not able to reside in the same household. If and when this occurs, it is important to develop and maintain connections between siblings to promote their emotional wellness and well-being.

Fostering a Child Whose Sibling(s) Live Elsewhere

When siblings live apart, they do not have to be disconnected from one another. Parents and caregivers can provide assistance and support in facilitating healthy and empowering connections with one another.

Sibling Conflict in Adoptive Families

Siblings often argue and fight; it is a part of life, right? However, sibling rivalries and arguments can be more complex in an adoptive family since family connections are made differently. This tip sheet addresses the unique dynamics of sibling conflict in adoptive families.

Resource Library Items

Fostering Across Wisconsin Newsletter: The Importance of Sibling Relationships
Fostering Across Wisconsin Newsletter: Sibling Relationships
Partners Newsletter: Siblings
Handout: Caregivers Can Make a Difference in the Lives of Siblings
National Siblings Day Coalition Connection Blog Post
Brothers and Sisters in Adoption, by Arleta M. James
Siblings in Adoption and Foster Care: Traumatic Separations and Honored Connections, by Deborah N. Silverstein and Susan Livingston Smith

Champion Classrooms Courses and Webinars

Supporting Sibling Relationships: Honoring Their Past, Present, and Future

This recorded webinar explores how foster and adoptive parents can support sibling relationships for the child(ren) in their care.

Sibling Relationships

This course looks at three separate but common concerns that foster and adoptive families face: sustaining and strengthening the sibling bond, sibling conflicts in adoptive families, and parenting siblings connected through trauma.

No Matter What Families Video

Race and Transracial Parenting

Several families and a sibling set share the deeply personal emotions they all have experienced in navigating racism and oppression. There are so many important lessons and enlightening insights that can be learned by listening to their heartfelt journeys.