Siblings Coping with Parental Depression: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

This study investigated similarities and differences in levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms and strategies used to cope with stress in a sample of sibling pairs of 9-15 year-old children of depressed parents. The sample of 52 sibling pairs (104 children) was selected from the family cognitive-behavioral intervention described by Compas et al. (2015). Children were assessed on measures of primary control coping, secondary control coping, disengagement coping, and internalizing and externalizing symptoms based on parent and child self-reports. It was expected that siblings would not differ in their experience of internalizing and externalizing problems or in their use of coping strategies. The findings supported the hypotheses that siblings would not differ across these three measures. Researchers also found that the younger siblings’ scores were not dependent on their older siblings’ experience.