Sibling relationships in residential child and youth services

Siblings can accompany us throughout our lives and have the potential to significantly influence our identity formation. They often play a particularly important role in stressful family situations. This study aims to highlight the importance of sibling relationships in residential child and youth care. Specifically it examines how professionals deal with them in practice. The focus is on the consequences that sibling relationships have for the work of educational professionals. It also looks at the effects of sibling relationships on the development of children and young people and the influence of the professionals' personal experiences on their professional attitude. Despite the importance of sibling relationships for children and young people there are no specific guidelines for dealing with them. Due to the complexity of the individual circumstances action is taken on a case-by-case basis.