Perceived changes in siblings of hospitalized children: a comparison of sibling and parent reports

This study compared sibling perception of changes in feelings and behaviors to parental perception of sibling changes during a pediatric hospitalization. The data showed a low level of agreement on a Perceived Change Scale, with siblings reporting a significantly higher number of changes than did their parents. Further, the only significant main effect found on seven-way analysis of variance was sibling age, with a lower percentage of agreement for young siblings and their parents than for older siblings. Similarly, one significant two-way interaction revealed that the percentage of agreement increased for older siblings when they saw their parents more frequently, but it did not increase for younger siblings. In addition, siblings reported the worst parts of the experience and what could be done to help them. Implications of these findings for clinicians and researchers are presented.