Risk Factors in the Adjustment of Siblings of Children with Cancer

Abstract

The study investigated the psychological adjustment of 99 siblings of children with cancer. At 6 months post-diagnosis, 24 siblings had scores in the borderline or clinical range on parent- and teacher-completed measures of behavioural adjustment and were reported to have shown negative changes in behaviour since diagnosis. The results of logistic regression analysis indicated that problems in adjustment were related to the degree of disruption of family life occasioned by the illness, the resources available to the family to cope with the effects of such disruption on siblings and siblings’ perceptions of negative interpersonal effects on their lives.