Siblings of pediatric cancer patients face many stressors that increase the likelihood of developing emotional and behavioral disorders. Therefore, it is crucial to identify siblings at risk and provide interventions to support their adaptation. On one hand, our study aims to examine how siblings experience the child’s cancer, whether an increased risk of emotional and behavioral problems can be detected in this population, and how the latter are associated with factors such as social support, coping strategies, cancer knowledge and various demographic variables. Thus, in the first phase, information on the above variables as well as the needs for a support program in a larger group of siblings will be collected by means of online questionnaires. On the other hand, our research also aims to develop and implement a preventive psychoeducational program for this population and to test its effectiveness. Hence, in the second phase we will design a support program based on the wishes and needs of siblings and parents as well as similar programs developed abroad. This experimental part will involve one group that will be included in the program and a waiting-list control group. The mentioned variables will be evaluated before and after the implementation of the program to test its effectiveness. The study has been approved by the Commission of the Republic of Slovenia for Medical Ethics and is currently in its first phase. In Slovenia siblings of children with cancer have been an overlooked population to date and our program will be the first of its kind. We estimate our study will help the Clinical Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (University Medical Centre Ljubljana) in their goal to provide support to all family members in pediatric cancer care as well as contribute to the work with similar populations.

Pediatric oncology, siblings, emotional and behavioral difficulties, psychoeducational support program, program effectiveness

Applied Psychology Around the World | Volume 7, Issue 2