College Student Sibling Relationship Quality and Attachment When One Sibling Has a Chronic Illness

Sibling relationship quality and sibling attachment in college students who have a sibling with a chronic illness were investigated through a self-report questionnaire. A comparison group of college students with a sibling were used in the quantitative analyses. There is little prior research regarding college students who have a sibling with a chronic illness, so the research questions are as follows. RQ1: Do college students’ perceptions of the quality of their sibling relationship differ when the sibling has a chronic illness as compared to siblings who do not have a chronic illness? RQ2: Do college students’ perceptions of their attachment to a sibling differ when the sibling has a chronic illness as compared to siblings who do not have a chronic illness? RQ3: How does having a sibling with a chronic illness impact the college students’ perceptions of the quality of the relationship with their sibling? Though no significant difference was found between groups for RQ1 or RQ2, participants explained several ways they felt that their sibling’s chronic illness has impacted their relationship, most of which were a positive impact. Further research is needed to examine the protectiveness well siblings feel towards their ill sibling and how this impacts the sibling relationship. As well as to make the results generalizable to a larger population. Overall, it is clear that participants have strong levels of attachment to their sibling and high levels of positive relationship quality, regardless of if they have a sibling with a chronic illness or not.