Siblings of youths with chronic conditions: a school-based survey

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the differences between youths with a sibling affected by a chronic condition or a disability (SCCD) and their peers with healthy siblings.

Method: Using data from the second wave of GenerationFRee study, we compared adolescents from each gender with healthy siblings to adolescents with SCDD on demographical, familial, internalizing and externalizing behavior variables. Subsequently we repeated the analysis excluding from each group adolescents who suffered from a chronic condition or disability themselves.

Results: At the bivariate and multivariate level, among those with SCDD, healthy females reported more somatic symptoms, healthy males more violent behaviors, and both genders lived more often in non-intact families. When considering both healthy and unhealthy adolescents, at bivariate analysis female adolescents with SCDD were more likely to have a poorer relationship to their mother, to be unhealthy, to smoke, to be at risk for disordered eating and to report somatic symptoms. At multivariate level, only the association with SCDD and smoking remained. Male adolescents with SCDD, at both bivariate and multivariate analyses, were more likely to be unhealthy and to live in larger and non-intact families.

Conclusion: Healthy adolescents with an SCDD are more at risk of somatic symptoms and violent behaviors than their peers with healthy siblings. Health professionals in contact with adolescents should always consider them with a systemic approach. Parents should be informed about the potential effect on the siblings of a CDD child, but also reassured, as adolescents with SCDD are not different from their peers with healthy siblings.

Keywords: adolescence; chronic conditions; siblings.