Re-Determining My Position: Experiences of Adolescent Siblings of Pediatric Cancer Survivors

Pediatric cancer diagnoses disrupt not only patients and their parents' lives, but also siblings' lives and functioning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived adolescent experience within the family after a sibling was diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Eight adolescent siblings of pediatric cancer survivors participated in this descriptive qualitative study. In-depth interviews and qualitative analytic method were used. The semi-structured question consisted of "experiences when the sick sibling was in treatment," "the difficulties faced as a sibling of a sick child," and "the causes of stress and how to relieve stress in the relationship with the sibling." Three themes and nine subthemes were developed from the data. The three themes comprised "worried about family," "feeling excluded," and "becoming a supporter for family." The findings of this study indicated that adolescents tended to experience worry about their family and a feeling of exclusion, but also became a supporter for their family. Healthcare providers need to suggest that parents provide emotional support for children remaining at home and express gratitude to healthy children who are overcoming a difficult situation.