Impact of Growing Up with a Chronically Ill Sibling on Well Siblings' Late Adolescent Functioning

Table 2

Siblings’ responses to the question “How has the disease affected your life?”.

Theme	𝑁	Quotation
Positive^a
Awareness	16
Emotional support for others		“She had more strength to overcome different things. We’d just look at people and see if they had an illness, we would see past that and see the person.”
Health literacy/understanding		“I guess I’m more informed about what asthma is, and when other people have it I can sympathize with them. Not that I have it, but since I know what it is, I’m able to relate to people in that sense.”
Financial support/responsibility		“We donate to the leukemia fund now, so it’s definitely raised my awareness of the disease.”
Sensitivity		“I’m more sensitive to it now, like when I hear “meningitis” it kind of snaps my neck and I’m like, whoa, what did you say? But then I have a testimony for it, in a small way.”
Family/bonding support	40
Scheduling		“We had to have a pretty strict schedule, but it united us as a family, cause we’d work together to get the schedule done and help my mom and all that.”
Parental support		“My parents were really supportive, so that helped a lot.”
Respect for sibling		“This disease probably makes me appreciate my brother more; it’s pretty amazing he’s alive. We’ve gotten really close since I’ve left for school.”
Family teamwork		“It basically brought us closer together because we were constantly trying to take care of him, and not just one person could do all that. We all pitched in.”
Sensitivity		“I’d say we’re a lot more receptive to grief. I’d say we’re a lot more sensitive than other families are.”
Negative^b
Fear	17
Heritability of illness		“Supposedly it’s hereditary. But, like our kids wouldn’t get it, but our grandkids might. So I guess that’s a fear I have.”
Inability to aid Sibling		“My biggest fear was that they’d have an asthma attack and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”
Fear for sibling’s future		“Just that he won’t ever grow out if it. The doctors said he might, but then they said it’s not like anything they’ve seen before, so that’s kind of scary. That he could always be hurting. He doesn’t know any difference.”
Regret^c	27
Time spent with parents/family		“I wish I had gotten to hang out with my parents more.”
Insensitivity to sibling		“I wish I wasn’t so insensitive to her about it. That might offend her.”
Jealousy		“I sometimes got jealous of her, because she got more attention from our mom and dad.”
Change in family dynamic		“After she died, my dad has really changed, as far as showing any emotion. I think it hardened him as a person, and that’s been the biggest change. Showing emotion is hard for him now.”

a“Sometimes good things come out of bad experiences. What would you say was good that came out of your sibling’s illness?”
^b“Looking back, what would you have want to happen differently about the experience?”
^c“What were your biggest fears then?”.