The SIBS intervention aims to prevent mental health problems for siblings of children with chronic disorders and has shown promising results. The mechanisms behind these changes have not been examined. Parent-child relationship quality is a predictor of mental health in siblings. Our first objective was to investigate whether sibling-perceived relationship quality between siblings and parents changes over time after participating in SIBS. Second, as the intervention requires participation of only one parent, we examined with a dual scale (anxiety and avoidance attachment style) whether relationship quality was associated with which parent participated. Third, as SIBS aims to promote parents‘ communication skills, we examined whether sibling-perceived communication quality with parents predicted relationship quality over time. The sample comprised 99 siblings (M = 11.5 years, SD = 2.0; range 8–16; 54% girls, 46% boys) of children with chronic disorders and one parent per sibling (63% mothers). We administered the questionnaires at pre-intervention, at three- and 6-months post-intervention. We applied growth curve models for relationship quality over time with communication quality as a predictor, controlling for parent gender. We found significant improvement in sibling-perceived relationship quality with the participating and the non-participating parent on the relationship anxiety scale over time, with small to medium effect sizes. Higher communication quality significantly predicted improvement of relationship quality in all four relationship outcomes. We conclude that change in relationship quality may be part of the positive outcomes of the SIBS intervention and is mainly explained by communication enhancement. Controlled trials of the SIBS intervention are indicated.

SIBS 干预旨在预防患有慢性疾病的儿童的兄弟姐妹的心理健康问题，并已显示出可喜的结果。这些变化背后的机制尚未得到研究。亲子关系质量是兄弟姐妹心理健康的预测指标。我们的第一个目标是调查参与 SIBS 后，兄弟姐妹感知到的兄弟姐妹与父母之间的关系质量是否会随着时间的推移而变化。其次，由于干预只需要一位家长的参与，我们用双重尺度（焦虑和回避依恋风格）检查关系质量是否与哪位家长参与有关。第三，由于 SIBS 旨在提高父母的沟通技巧，我们研究了兄弟姐妹感知到的与父母的沟通质量是否可以随着时间的推移预测关系质量。样本包括 99 名 患有慢性疾病的儿童兄弟姐妹（ M  = 11.5 岁，SD = 2.0；范围 8-16；54% 女孩，46% 男孩），每个兄弟姐妹有一名父母（63% 为母亲）。我们在干预前、干预后三个月和六个月进行了问卷调查。我们应用增长曲线模型来衡量一段时间内的关系质量，并以沟通质量作为预测因子，并控制了父母的性别。我们发现，随着时间的推移，参与和不参与父母的兄弟姐妹感知的关系质量在关系焦虑量表上都有显着改善，效果大小为小到中等。较高的沟通质量显着预测所有四种关系结果中关系质量的改善。我们的结论是，关系质量的变化可能是 SIBS 干预的积极结果的一部分，主要是通过沟通的增强来解释的。图中显示了 SIBS 干预的对照试验。