Strengthening resilience in siblings of children with diseases/disabilities. Examining the role of age, gender and birth order in the prevention program GeschwisterTREFF

Background Siblings of children with diseases/disabilities are at-risk for mental disorders. An expert survey and a multicenter evaluation study of the prevention program GeschwisterTREFF were conducted to examine differences in the targeted domains (1) psychoeducation (knowledge on disability), (2) emotion regulation (emotional problems), (3) perception of self and others (self-esteem), and (4) social support (social integration) with regard to gender, age and birth order. Methods GeschwisterTREFF is a standardized prevention program to strengthen resilience in siblings of children with diseases/disabilities. Twelve experts who conducted the program were asked whether boy vs. girls, younger vs. older children, earlier vs. later born siblings profited more in the respective target domains. Using the data of 97 siblings from a prospective multicenter evaluation study, we examined whether changes in the target domains were moderated by gender, age and birth order (variance analysis). Results Experts indicated that female participants benefited more in the domain perception of self and others, while the module emotion regulation was more beneficial for males. Furthermore, their experience was that younger children benefitted the most from psychoeducation, whereas older children benefitted more in the domain perception of self and others. Variance analysis revealed that differences in emotional problems were moderated by gender (larger benefit in males), knowledge on the disease was moderated by age (older participants gained more knowledge), and earlier born siblings showed a tendency for stronger improvement in self-esteem. Discussion The consideration of individual characteristics (gender, age, birth order) may improve the efficacy of this prevention program.