Mental health dynamics between mothers and siblings of children with disabilities.

Introduction: When a child has a disability, their families face significant challenges that also impact parents' and siblings' mental health and adjustment. We examined the potential bidirectional relationships between parental mental health and sibling mental health and adjustment in families of children with a disability.

Methods: We utilized baseline and 12-month follow-up data from a randomized controlled trial of a brief intervention designed to enhance parent-sibling communication in families of children with a disability.

Mental health in mothers and fathers of children with chronic disorders.

Objective: This study applied the Family Systems Illness Model to examine how child disorder severity influences mental health in mothers and fathers of children with chronic (mainly developmental) disorders (CD).

Methods: We measured parental mental health and perceived child disorder severity among 204 mothers and 125 fathers of 220 children with CD and compared the mental health scores with norms. We analyzed how much of the variance in parental mental health was explained by child disorder severity, including discrepancy between maternally and paternally perceived severity.

Emotional communication in support groups for siblings of children with disabilities.

Objective: Support groups are often arranged for siblings of children with disabilities to prevent psychological maladjustment. This study describes how children express emotions in support groups and how group leaders and other children respond.

Method: Conversations in 17 group sessions for siblings aged 11 to 16 were coded with VR-CoDES to report frequency of emotional expressions and responses.