Abstract
Although parents often provide care for adult children coping with serious mental illness, adult siblings are typically expected to assume caregiving responsibilities when parents are no longer able to do so. However, relatively little is known about how family relationships and adults’ own reactions to their sibling’s mental illness may relate to their intentions to provide future sibling care. The present study examined how adults’ reports of parental practical support and mutual emotional support with parents were related to their feelings of personal loss due to mental illness and their intentions to provide future care for their sibling with mental illness. A total of 107 adults (43 men; 64 women; age M = 32.4 years; SD = 6.56) with a sibling with mental illness completed an online survey about relationships with their parents, personal loss due to mental illness, and intentions to provide future sibling care. Present findings suggest that perceived parental social support moderated relationships between adults’ reports of personal loss and intentions to provide future sibling care. Overall, adults who reported higher levels of personal loss generally reported greater intentions to provide future care for their sibling with mental illness when they perceived themselves as having more practical and mutual emotional support with their parents and had lower intentions to provide future care when they perceived themselves as having less mutual emotional support with their parents. Findings highlight the importance of adults’ perceptions of personal loss and parental social support in their intentions to provide future sibling care and have implications for family caregiving interventions.
Highlights
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Adults are often expected to provide future care for sibling with mental illness
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Adults’ views of parental support and personal loss were related to future sibling caregiving intentions
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Focus on family relationships can improve caregiving for people with mental illness
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Author Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception, design, data collection, data analysis, and conceptualization in a meaningful way. E.B.D. contributed primarily to study conceptualization, design, and interpretation of results as well as writing the majority of the manuscript. S.E.R. contributed primarily to study design, analyzing results, and writing the manuscript. M.F.R. contributed primarily to study design, running, analyzing, and writing up results, and manuscript review. F.J.G. contributed primarily to running results, results interpretation, creating the figures, and manuscript review. C.H.S. contributed primarily as an advisor for the project, assisting with study conceptualization, design, writing, and manuscript review.
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Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of Bowling Green State University. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Dulek, E.B., Russin, S.E., Rudd, M.F. et al. Personal Loss, Parental Relationships, and Caregiving Intentions among Adult Siblings of Individuals with Mental Illness. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1607–1618 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01960-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01960-0