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Mothers' Perceptions of the Quality of Childhood Sibling Relationships Affected by Disability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

Melissa Allison  and
Marilyn Campbell Open the ORCID record for Marilyn Campbell [Opens in a new window]
Melissa Allison
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Marilyn Campbell*
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Marilyn Campbell, PhD, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove QLD 4059, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The quality of the sibling relationship has an important role in the development of psychosocial skills throughout childhood. While the literature suggests that the significance of sibling relationships is heightened when one sibling has a disability, empirical findings about the quality of these relationships are few and inconsistent. The present study aimed to address this gap, by investigating mothers' perspectives about the impact of disability on the quality of the childhood sibling relationship. Forty-one mothers with a child with disability, and 48 with no children with disability completed an online questionnaire that assessed the amount of perceived warmth/closeness and conflict in their children's sibling relationship. It was found that while there were no differences in reported conflict between the two groups, mothers with a child with disability reported significantly lower warmth/closeness in their children's sibling relationship than mothers without a child with disability. Demographic variables such as number of children, gender grouping, target gender, target age and age order did not moderate this result. Mothers overall reported significantly more warmth/closeness for younger rather than older children, and more conflict when the sibling was younger than the target child as opposed to older than them. Clinical implications for intervention are discussed.

Keywords

siblingsdisabilitysibling relationship qualitymotherschildren
Type
Articles
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , July 2015 , pp. 56 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Australian Psychological Society Ltd 2015 

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