Sibling Relationships, Disability, Chronic, and Mental Illness: Development of the Siblings ’ Experience Quality Scale (SEQS)

AbstractThe goal of this study is to propose the Siblings ’ Experience Quality Scale (SEQS), a measure for the assessment of cognitive, emotional and behavioral experience of adult individuals having a brother or sister with an intellectual/developmental disability, chronic physical illness or mental illness, on five dimensions: Closeness, Conflict, Jeal ousy, Self-Marginalization, and Worry. A sample of 213 Italian adult typically developing siblings (ages 18–69 yrs.) was used to demonstrate the psychometric validity of the scale. Results of confirmatory factor analysis, which resulted in high scores of goodness of fit, supported five identifiab le factors reflecting the theoretically-based constructs of the SEQS and demonstrated convergence with the general construct of siblings’ quality of experience. Correlations with the Lifespan Sibling Relationships Scale (LSRS), the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and the Aggression Question naire (AQ) demonstrated the construct, convergent, and discriminant validity. In particular, Jealousy, Conflict, Worry, and Self-Marginalization were negatively correlated with LSRS, while Closeness was positively correlated with LSRS; Worry and Self-Marginalization were positively correlated with B DI-II; and the majority of the SEQS subscales were not correlated with the AQ. Furthermore, siblings of individuals with intellectual/developmental disability showed higher scores on Closeness and Worry, while siblings of individuals with...
Source: Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities - Category: Disability Source Type: research