Resilience and the Role of Sibling Relationships among Children within Homeless Families

The purpose of this study was to determine how the presence of resilience was manifested in a population of children within homeless families and more specifically, whether the sibling relationship provided a unique contribution to child psychological adjustment. Analyses were conducted to determine if the sibling relationship provided a unique contribution to the amelioration of child psychological distress among children within homeless families, thereby promoting child resilience. The variables of the study included resilience, sibling relationship, and psychological distress among children within homeless families. Data was collected from 60 school-aged children (26 boys and 34 girls), ages 9 to 17, who, along with their parents and siblings, resided in two, agency-operated, emergency housing centers located in Miami-Dade County. Hypothesis 1 predicted that high resilience would be related to low psychological distress. Hypothesis 2 predicted that positive sibling relationship would be related to low psychological distress and Hypothesis 3 predicted that high resilience and positive sibling relationship would be related to low psychological distress. It was concluded that resilience was partially related to low psychological distress; however, the relationship between positive sibling relationship and low psychological distress was not supported by the data in this study. The clinical and service implications of this study are discussed and recommendations are made for future research on this subject