Well sibling psychological adjustment to chronic physical disorder in a sibling: How important is maternal awareness of their illness attitudes and perceptions?

The psychological adjustment of healthy siblings was investigated in relati on to their attitudes and perceptions about their brother's or sister's chr onic physical disorder, to their mothers' awareness of these attitudes and perceptions, and to three other maternal factors (maternal distress, matern al social support, and amount of care demanded by the physical disorder). S ixty-two well siblings and mothers of children with a range of chronic phys ical disorders completed standardised questionnaires. The majority of sibli ngs did not appear to have adjustment problems, although the sample had sli ghtly increased rates of emotional symptoms compared to the general populat ion. Mothers rated well siblings as having more negative attitudes and perc eptions about the physical disorder than reported by siblings themselves. A multiple regression analysis indicated that better sibling adjustment was associated with higher maternal awareness of their attitudes and perception s. These findings support Varni and Wallander's (1998) model that emphasise s the role of relationship and attitude variables in child adjustment to ch ronic physical disorder, The implications of these findings for clinical pr actice are discussed.