MEASURING SIBLING CANCER RELATED BELIEFS AND ADJUSTMENTS

描述（由申请人提供）： 当孩子被诊断出患有癌症时，他们的整个家庭都会受到影响。作为家庭系统的一部分，癌症儿童的健康兄弟姐妹可能会目睹他们的兄弟姐妹在身体和情感上的痛苦，经历突然和长期的分离，并担心他或她会死亡。此外，这些兄弟姐妹可能会与父母中的至少一人长时间分离，他们的日常生活被打乱，并且需要谈判由于癌症及其治疗而导致的家庭角色和责任的变化。考虑到儿童癌症对家庭造成的破坏程度，癌症儿童的兄弟姐妹表现出焦虑，抑郁和创伤后压力也就不足为奇了。然而，与此同时，一些兄弟姐妹报告了癌症的积极结果，例如增强了同情心和成熟度。人们对癌症后茁壮成长的兄弟姐妹与那些有困难的兄弟姐妹的区别知之甚少。现有的少数研究表明，兄弟姐妹对癌症经历的信念以及他们对癌症对家庭系统影响的看法影响了他们对癌症的情绪和行为反应。这项研究的目的是建立一个可靠和有效的方法来评估与他们的调整相关的兄弟姐妹的癌症相关的信念。该项目的具体目标是：1）基于与兄弟姐妹的焦点小组，文献综述以及与癌症儿童家庭合作的专家的输入，创建癌症儿童兄弟姐妹所持有的癌症相关信念的测量; 2）完善测量，确定其结构，并评估其可靠性（即，内部一致性，重测信度）; 3）评价改进的测量方法与目前使用的测量方法的有效性，这些测量方法包括兄弟姐妹对癌症的看法、心理社会适应、家庭功能和性格特征的测量; 4）探索测量方法随发育阶段的变化。与目前用于评估兄弟姐妹信念的措施不同，兄弟姐妹疾病信念量表（西比）是创新的，因为它将包括广泛的信念（即，生长促进和生长抑制信念），并作为研究计划的第一步，该研究计划旨在创建一种干预措施，该干预措施针对兄弟姐妹的癌症相关信念，以改善他们对癌症的适应。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): When children are diagnosed with cancer, their entire family is affected. As part of the family system, healthy siblings of children with cancer may witness their brother or sister in physical and emotional pain, experience sudden and extended separations from him or her, and worry that he or she will die. Additionally, these siblings may be separated from at least one of their parents for extended periods, have their daily routines disrupted, and need to negotiate changes in family roles and responsibilities due to cancer and its treatment. Given the level of disruption that childhood cancer causes for families, it is not surprising that siblings of children with cancer have been found to display anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress. At the same time, however, some siblings report positive outcomes of cancer such as enhanced empathy and maturity. Little is known about what distinguishes siblings who thrive after cancer from those that have difficulties. The few research studies available suggest siblings' beliefs about the cancer experience and their perceptions about the effects of cancer on their family system influence their emotional and behavioral reactions to cancer. The goal of the proposed study is to create a reliable and valid method for assessing the cancer-related beliefs of siblings that are associated with their adjustment. The Specific Aims of the project are: 1) Create a measure of the cancer-related beliefs held by siblings of children with cancer based upon focus groups with siblings, a review of the literature, and input from experts working with families of children with cancer; 2) Refine the measure, determine its structure, and assess its reliability (i.e., internal consistency, test-retest reliability) after administering it to 150 siblings of children with cancer; 3) Evaluate the validity of the refined measure against a currently used measure of siblings' perceptions of cancer, measures of psychosocial adjustment, family functioning, and dispositional characteristics; and 4) Explore variation in the measure as a function of developmental stage. Unlike current measures for assessing sibling's beliefs, the Sibling Illness Belief Inventory (SIBI) is innovative in that it will include a broad range of beliefs (i.e., both growth enhancing and growth-inhibiting beliefs) and serve as a first step in a program of research aimed at creating an intervention that targets cancer-related beliefs of siblings to improve their adjustment to cancer.