Self and sibling care attitudes, personal loss, and stress-related growth among siblings of adults with mental illness

Abstract

Although sibling ties are typically among the longest lasting family relationships, relatively little is known about how adult siblings navigate family caregiving when a brother or sister has a serious mental illness. The present study examined the role of primary caregiver status, perceived sibling illness severity, sibling relationship quality, and self and sibling caregiving attitudes in understanding reports of personal loss and stress-related personal growth among siblings of adults with serious mental illness. Online surveys were completed by 226 adult siblings (141 women; 85 men; mean age = 34 years; SD = 9.05). Results suggest that well siblings' reports of self and sibling caregiving attitudes significantly differed as a function of primary caregiver status (i.e., sibling, parents, or others as primary caregiver or no caregiver). Sibling caregiving attitudes differentially predicted well siblings' experience of personal loss and stress-related growth, regardless of demographics and primary caregiver status, perceived sibling illness severity, and sibling relationship quality. Greater ambivalence about providing care to their sibling with mental illness was associated with adults' reports of greater personal loss while higher levels of sibling balanced care priorities were significantly related to higher levels of personal growth. Greater self-care attitudes were significantly related to lower levels of both personal loss and personal growth for well siblings. Understanding sibling caregiving attitudes has important implications for research and interventions with families coping with mental illness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).