Psychosocial Adjustment in Siblings of Children with War-Related Injuries

The study assessed the prevalence and predictors of post-traumatic symptomatology and emotional and behavioral difficulties in siblings of children who incurred war-related injuries. It was predicted that injury severity, gender and attributional style would account for a significant amount of the variance in post-traumatic stress symptoms and emotional and behavioral difficulties in those siblings. The sample consisted of 406 siblings of both genders with a mean age of 12.50 years. The results indicated that injury severity, gender and attributional style were related to emotional and behavioral difficulties and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, except for gender and post-traumatic stress .Siblings of children with severe injury appeared to be at greater risk for intrusive thoughts and avoidance as well as emotional and behavioral difficulties. Females exhibited more emotional and behavioral problems than did males. Siblings with more maladaptive attributional styles endorsed more emotional-behavioral problems and symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Techniques for strengthening coping abilities designed to enhance cognitive control may be used with siblings at risk, particularly females and siblings of children who sustained a severe injury. Treatments such as trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy may incur positive results. (Contains 3 tables.)