Sibling Research

Thank you to everyone who generously volunteered to participate in my doctoral dissertation study!

As promised, this is a very abbreviated summary of some of the results:

· Respondents who grew up with mentally ill siblings reported more negative outcomes than those who grew up with well siblings. Their sibling relationships were characterized by elevated levels of negativity and caretaking in both childhood and adulthood, as well as lower levels of closeness in adulthood.

· Respondents who grew up with siblings with addictions had similar outcomes to those who grew up with siblings with mental illness. Respondents reported elevated negativity and caretaking in both childhood and adulthood in these sibling relationships.

· Respondents who grew up with siblings with comorbid issues (both mental illness and medical illness, mental illness and addiction, mental illness plus developmental disability and medical illness) had the most negative outcomes in this study. For example, those with siblings who had both mental and medical illness reported the highest levels of negativity in their childhood and adulthood sibling relationships. They also experienced elevated levels of caretaking in adulthood, lower levels of closeness in childhood, and perceived lower levels of parental fairness (compared to those with siblings with other single issues and well siblings).

· Respondents who grew up with siblings with developmental disability reported the highest levels of caretaking in childhood, as well as elevated adult caretaking in the sibling relationship.

· Respondents who grew up with medically ill siblings reported sibling relationships characterized by elevated adult caretaking; lower negativity in adulthood & childhood, and higher levels of child closeness (compared to those with siblings with other single issues and well siblings).

· Respondents who lost a sibling to death reported the most positive sibling relationships: mild levels of caretaking, higher levels of closeness, and lower levels of negativity, in childhood and adulthood.

The entire dissertation is available through ProQuest at http://gradworks.umi.com/33/50/3350294.html

Deborah A. Galaska, PsyD, 2009

Colorado School of Professional Psychology,

University of the Rockies