Growing Up with an Anxious Sibling: Psychosocial Correlates and Predictors of Sibling Relationship Quality

Abstract

Relationships between young people with anxiety and their non-affected siblings are important for both individuals in the dyad, and for family dynamics throughout the lifespan; however, these relationships are not well understood. This study examined the experience of growing up with an anxious sibling from the sibling without anxiety’s point of view. We measured psychosocial factors associated with sibling relationship quality in 64 young adults with an anxious sibling. Overall, participants with anxious siblings were resilient, reporting comparable sibling relationship quality, anxiety symptoms, and psychological functioning relative to peers without anxious siblings. The contributions of caregiver burden and attributions about the causes of the sibling’s anxiety-related behavior accounted for significant variance in both sibling relationship warmth/closeness and conflict, with responsibility attributions emerging as an individual predictor of conflict. Clinical and research implications for understanding sibling relationships in the context of anxiety, and for the role of attributions in family relationships are considered.