When a child is diagnosed with a chronic illness it is heartbreaking for everyone involved , especially the imediate family . Within this blog I’ am going to explore the common issues and psychological damage which can occur to siblings when trying to adapt.(Derouin & Jesse , 1996 ) found that the presence of a chronically ill sibling can have a profound effect on the remaining healthy siblings .(Williams , 1997 ) exposed through a meta analysis of studies that 60 percent of children with a chronically ill sibling were at an increased risk for developing adverse psychological problems then children with healthy brothers and sisters (Lobato & Kao , 2002 ).This could be due to the fact that the dynamics within the family drastically change upon a diagnosis of a chronical illness, the parents time and emotional efforts are tied up with helping the ill child and often what occurs is that the other children in the family are over looked, (Murray 1998).To contribute to this it has also been found that parents are less tolerant towards their healthy children ( Foster et al , 2001 ),as the correspondance that the children have with their parents is often neggetive due to the overwhelming stress the family is in .
However it is not just negative effects which have been reported from studies concerning chronically ill siblings .(Murray ,1998) , found that the healthy siblings could develop effective coping strategies, increased mental maturation and alongside this develop an understanding and ability to empathise with others more competently .
The effects of having a chronically ill sibling vary amongst people , because of indivdual differences which effect mental processes .These differences include : developmental level , gender , birth order , birth spacing and the severity of the condition of the sibling ,(Thibodeau ,1988). Controversially the spacing between the siblings has profound effects on the psychological damage which can be caused : the closer the children are in age is directly related to an increase in psychological damage .It has also been found that older sisters and younger brothers are the most effected as they show higher levels of behavioural problems .
So it is obvious that there is a margin for damaging effects to siblings of chronically ill children , the question is how can these effects be limited .Gursky, (2007) claims that educational interventions can limit the stress and anxiety of children with siblings who have been hospitalised . The study used 50 participants who were children visiting their siblings on a children’s ward . The participants were split into one of two conditions : a control group who did not receive an educational intervention and an experimental group which did .The educational intervention was administered by proffesional health care administors who had recieved training and had the relevant experience to sensitively conduct the intervention . The intervention itself focussed on educating the child about their brothers or sisters illness , and what it entailed .The level of information dispensed to the child was inline with their mental age . The study found that those who had recieved an educational intervention measured as having decreased levels of stress and anxiety preceding the experiment .
However one area of concern within this field of research is ethics ,with regards to how the information about the child’s stress and anxiety levels is accumulated. As if the questions are particularly stressfull this could be potentially damaging to the children involved , a made up example of an insensitive question could be :’how does your sisters illness make you feel,’ these kind of questions could be upsetting and as a consequence have a profound impact on the chronically ill child and the participant . For example most of the experimental methods used in this kind of research ,obtain information from participants by interviewing or administering questionnaires , this could potentially be damaging for the family : as it brings attention too quite negative issues and puts emphasis on the child’s illness which is unfair . Therefore it is imperative that the researcher has integrity and gains fully informed consent.
References
The Effect of Educational Interventions with Siblings of
Hospitalized Children
Barbara Gursky, MA, CCLS 2007