Sibling Adjustment to Childhood Chronic Illness: An Integrative Review

Shannon Lummer-Aikey, Sara Goldstein

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Siblings of children with a chronic illness are among the close family members impacted by childhood chronic illness. Family roles, routines, and functioning are adjusted to fit the needs of the child and family throughout the course of the illness. Empirical articles regarding adjustment of healthy siblings of children with chronic illnesses ages 0 to 17 years, published in 2000 to 2019 were searched on PsycInfo, PubMed, and Medline using the keywords “sibling adjustment,” “sibling chronic,” and “sibling illness.” Through thematic synthesis, four broad topics emerged concerning sibling adjustment to chronic illness: (a) experiences, (b) psychosocial adjustment, (c) coping, and (d) communication. Implications for family nursing and family health practitioners and future research directions are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)136-153
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Family Nursing
Volume27
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2021

Keywords

  • childhood chronic illness
  • integrative review
  • sibling adjustment

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