They still grieve—a nationwide follow‐up of young adults 2–9 years after losing a sibling to cancer

Abstract

Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess the prevalence of unresolved grief in bereaved young adult siblings and examine possible contributing factors.Methods: The study was a Swedish population-based study of young adults who had lost a brother or sister to cancer, 2-9 years earlier. Of 240 eligible siblings, 174 (73%) completed a study-specific questionnaire. This study focused on whether the respondents had worked through their grief over the sibling's death and to what extent.Results: A majority (54%) of siblings stated that they had worked through their grief either 'not at all' or 'to some extent' at the time of investigation. In multiple regression analyses with unresolved grief as the dependent variable, 21% of the variance was explained by lack of social support and shorter time since loss.Conclusion: The majority of bereaved young adults had not worked through their grief over the sibling's death. A small group of siblings reported that they had not worked through their grief at all, which may be an indicator of prolonged grief. Lack of social support and more recent loss were associated with not having worked through the grief over the sibling's death.

Adding Trauma-Informed Care at a Bereavement Camp to Facilitate Posttraumatic Growth: A Controlled Outcome Study

“…There are also other variables that were not addressed in this study. Social support plays an important role in grief resolution among children (Sveen, Eilegard, Steineck, & Kreicbergs, 2014), but current studies on its impact on PTG are inconclusive (Kilmer & Gil-Rivas, 2010;Yu et al, 2010). Future research may want to explore how social supports impact posttraumatic growth.…”

Life balance in adult healthy siblings of individuals with childhood cancer.

“…In addition, anger, jealousy, and externalizing behaviors (e.g., acting-out and fighting) have also been present in bereaved siblings years after the sibling with cancer had died (Nolbris & Hellström, 2005;Sveen et al, 2014). When using a control group of non-bereaved siblings, Eilegård, Steineck, Nyberg, and Kreicbergs (2013) found that there was not an increased risk of anxiety or depression in bereaved siblings.…”

“…For example, Martinson and Campos (1991) found that 16% of the bereaved sibling in their study had not worked through their grief even 7-9 years after their sibling had died. Similarly, Sveen et al (2014) found that over half of the bereaved adult siblings in their study were still working through their grief or had not even begun working through it. Bereaved siblings were found to follow a unique grieving process, in which they had random periods of mourning that they could not control (Nolbris & Hellström, 2005).…”

“…Davies (1983) concluded that bereaved siblings experience a higher rate of internalizing behaviors and lower social competence than the normal population. Internalizing behaviors were found to continue up to 9 years after the sibling's death and were thought to last into adulthood (Birenbaum et al, 1989;Davies, 1991;Nolbris & Hellström, 2005;Sveen, Eilegård, Steineck, & Kreicbergs, 2014). Over 50% of the bereaved siblings in Davies's (1983) study displayed argumentative behavior and internalizing behaviors.…”

“…Bereaved siblings were found to follow a unique grieving process, in which they had random periods of mourning that they could not control (Nolbris & Hellström, 2005). Sveen et al (2014) examined several factors associated with bereavement outcomes and found that the healthy sibling's age, gender, education, employment status, and whether or not the healthy sibling had lost another loved one after the sibling's death were not associated with bereavement outcomes. There are two environmental factors that have been showing to play a significant role in bereavement outcomes: shared life space and family environment (Davies, 1993).…”