Psychotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Psychotherapy, including details on psychiatry, psychoanalysis, methods, outcomes. | ||||||||
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Brief report: family-based group intervention for young siblings of children with chronic illness and developmental disability.Lobato DJ, Kao BT Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital, Coro West 2, 1 Hoppin Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA. debra_lobato@brown.edu OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a family-based group intervention for young siblings of children with chronic illness and developmental disability (CI/DD). METHODS: Forty-three healthy siblings (ages 4-7 years) of children with CI/DD and their parents participated in an intervention designed to address sibling challenges that cut across types of diagnostic conditions. The intervention consisted of six sessions of collateral and integrated sibling-parent groups. Measures of sibling knowledge, sibling sense of connectedness with other children in similar family circumstances, and sibling global functioning were collected before and after intervention. A subsample of 17 families completed a 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: Siblings' knowledge of the child's disorder and sibling connectedness increased significantly from pre- to posttreatment for both boys and girls, regardless of the nature of the brother or sister's condition. Sibling perceptions of self-competence increased from pre- to posttreatment, whereas parent reports of sibling behavioral functioning remained within the normal range. Improvements in sibling knowledge and connectedness maintained at follow-up. Parent satisfaction with the program was high. CONCLUSIONS: Results support more controlled evaluations of family-based intervention to improve young sibling adaptation to CI/DD. Published 1 November 2005 in J Pediatr Psychol, 30(8): 678-82.
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