The Effect of Childhood Chronic Illness on Siblings of the Ill Child.

Siblings of children with seizure disorders were compared to their sibling with the chronic illness and to nonafflicted unrelated children on cognitive, academic, and affective measures. The sample of 72 children included 24 children in each group. The children ranged in age from 7.1 to 16.8 years with a mean age of 11.8 years. As expected all children functioned within the average range on the intellectual tests, however the mean scores of the healthy siblings were higher than their ill brother/sisters but lower than the unrelated children. Academic achievement was found to be impaired for the children with seizure disorders and their siblings. On information processing tasks the sibling pair performed less well than the unrelated children. The serial recall performance indicated rehearsal strategies to facilitate recall were not typically used effectively by these children. While the children's reports of competences were all within the normal range the parents of the sibling pair reported their children as having more difficulties in school and as having more behavior problems than did parents of the unrelated comparison group. Data derived from a measure of family environment suggested parents perceive their households as being normal while the sibling pair's perceptions of their households were further from normal than their parents. Parents of the sibling pair differed on their reports of impact and coping. Parents reporting the highest impact contained the children with the most problems. The findings of this research are congruent with a model which considers three dimensions when investigating the effect of chronic illness. The dimensions include type of illness, social and psychological factors, and the level of development. When these dimensions are considered together the full effects of childhood chronic illness on all family members can begin to be understood.PhDSocial workClinical psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161526/1/8720259.pd