Caitlin Peterson (Herrman) and Dr. Barbara Mandleco, College of Nursing
Background and Significance
Raising a child with diabetes (CWD) impacts the whole family, since it is a disease requiring parental vigilance to ensure dietary/ medication compliance, and sibling understanding. Clearly, religion serves as an important resource to couples and families; however, it may also act as a resource for families who are raising a CWD. In fact, qualitative and empirical studies alike show religious practices and spiritual beliefs predict relational outcomes (Richards & Bergin, 1997). Family adaptation may also then be related to a the parent’s religiosity and the sibling relationships. Therefore one purpose of this study was to examine mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of religiosity when raising a CWD. Unfortunately, little research has examined family functioning, particularly sibling relationships, an integral part of child development which can influence family processes. However, information regarding sibling relationship in families rearing a child with a disability such as diabetes yields ambiguous findings. For example, some research suggests a child’s disability positively influences sibling relationships/behavior, whereas other research points to the disability as causing sibling stress. Indeed different opinions/outcomes indicate a need for further assessment of sibling relationships in these families. In addition, many studies rely on reports primarily from mothers, or siblings themselves; fathers’ opinions are frequently overlooked, and may differ from mothers. Therefore another purpose of this study was to discover information about sibling relationships in families raising a CWD according to parent gender. Finally, since there is minimal literature on the linkage between sibling relationships and religiosity, the third purpose of the study was to examine the linkage between these two variables in these families.
Methods
The 60 sets of parent participants lived in a western state and were recruited from the Diabetes Management Clinic at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Most families (69.2 %) earned more than $50,000 a year and were Caucasian (96.4%). Most fathers worked full time (85.5%; mean age 43.54 years), and almost half of the mothers (45.1%; mean age 40.62 years) worked part time. Most siblings (60%, mean age 12.84 years) and CWD (61.7%, mean age13 years) were female.
Procedure: After receiving IRB approval, and consenting, mothers and fathers raising a CWD independently completed a set of questionnaires measuring religiosity and sibling relationships. The mothers also completed a demographic questionnaire.
Measures
The 28-item Sibling Inventory of Behavior (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1981) measures four different aspects of sibling relationship: kindness, avoidance, involvement, and empathy. Parents rated relationships between the identified sibling and the CWD on a Likert scale of one to five (1 being “never” and 5 “always”). Higher scores indicated more positive sibling relationships. Sample items included, “Treats him/her as a good friend” indicating kindness, “Wants him/her to succeed” indicating empathy, “Teaches him/her new skills” indicating involvement, and “Would rather be alone than play with him/her” indicating avoidance. Chronbach alphas for the variables were: kindness: M = .88, F = .86; empathy: M = .91, F = .88; avoidance: M = .89, F = .80; involvement: M = .88, F = .86. Parents also completed a 13-item religiosity instrument measuring spirituality, and public and private religious practices (adapted from Litchfield, Thomas, and Li, 1997). Private practices included four items measuring how often individuals read scriptures, read religious materials (not scriptures), prayed, and felt they led a religious life by treating others with kindness and respect. Public practices included three items measuring how often individuals attended church meetings on Sundays and throughout the week. The Spirituality scale was composed of six items and included how often individuals felt their prayers were answered and how much they felt God influenced their life. Parents used a seven point Likert scale to evaluate their religious behavior (1 = rarely, 7 = daily) and their spirituality (1 = very, 7 = not at all). Spirituality items were reverse coded so that higher scores indicated higher religiosity. Items were summed and mean scores calculated. Chronbach alphas for the items are as follows: private religious practices: M = .83, F = .85; public religious practices: M = .77, F = .81; spirituality: M = .87, F = .88.
Results
Parents were very spiritual, attended services monthly, and practiced private religion weekly. Both parents saw the child as never-to-seldom avoidant, sometimes-to-often involved, often empathic, and sometimes-to-often kind. T-tests indicated significant difference between mothers’ and fathers’ perception of their spirituality (t-value 3.79; p < .001); mothers’ scores (6.30) were higher than fathers’ scores (5.81). Differences between parental perceptions of the sibling’s empathy toward the CWD approached significance (t-test 1.91; p<.06), with mothers rating (4.06) the siblings higher than fathers (3.88). Significant relationships were found between mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of their religiosity and their perceptions of sibling relationships according to parent gender. Correlations ranged from .39 (Kindness) to .70 (Avoidance). On the other hand, there were no significant relationships between religiosity and sibling relationships.
Discussion
Previous research has demonstrated ambiguous findings regarding sibling relationships in families rearing a child with a disability/chronic condition such as diabetes. However, I found a significant relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of sibling relationships in these families. There also is minimal information in the literature related to religiosity in these families. I however, discovered a significant relationship exists between mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of their religiosity, and also that parent religiosity scores differed according to parent gender: mothers’ scores were higher than fathers’. Finally, qualitative and empirical studies alike show religious practices and spiritual beliefs predict relational outcomes (Richards & Bergin, 1997). However, I did not find any significant correlations between sibling’s relationships and parental religiosity, even though I was hoping to find a negative relationship between avoidance and religiosity or a positive relationship between kindness and religiosity. Overall, this was a valuable learning experience for me. I plan to implement my findings from this research in my nursing practice. With these results, it would be very important for parent and health care providers to encourage siblings to be more kind and less avoidant. It would also useful to be aware of parental perceptual differences related to their spirituality so appropriate interventions can be offered.
References
- Buck, G. M. L. (1996). Wellness: Relative importance of physiological health, physiological well-being, family relationship, psychosocial maturity, and spirituality. Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia. Georgia.
- Litchfield, A. W., Thomas, D.L., & Li, B.D. (1997). Dimensions of religiosity as mediators of the relations between parenting and adolescent deviant behavior. Journal of Adolescent Research, 12, 199-226.
- Richards, P. S., & Bergin, A. E. (1997). A spiritual strategy for counseling and psychotherapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
- Schaefer, E., & Edgerton, M. (1981). The sibling inventory of behavior. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.