Personal Loss, Parental Relationships, and Caregiving Intentions among Adult Siblings of Individuals with Mental Illness

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.