The Family Environment in Bereaved Families and Its Relationship to Surviving Sibling Behavior

The purpose of this study was to describe the family environments (Family Environment Scale) of families in which a child had died from cancer to compare the family environments of these bereaved families with those of normal and distressed families, and to examine the relationship between the family environments and the behavioral responses (Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist) of the surviving siblings Subjects were 34 families in the Western United States and Canada who had experienced the death of a child from cancer and who had at least one surviving child, aged between 6 and 16 years Results indicate that bereaved families are more like normal than like distressed families Families with higher Cohesion, Active/Recreational Orientation, and Moral/ Religious Emphasis have children who demonstrate fewer behavioral problems up to 3 years after siblings death The higher the family emphasis on Active/Recreational Orientation and Intellectual/Cultural Orientation, the greater the social competence demonstrated by the children Findings suggest that support gamed by having a family emphasis on social involvement is associated with the children's behavior scores Implications for health care professionals are discussed.