Factors related to the adjustment of siblings following sudden infant death

Participants in this study were 119 siblings of children who had died from sudden infant death and their parents. This non-representative self-selected group, were profiled as 11 year old boys or girls from middle or upper-middle class intact families whose siblings had died a sudden death about 7 years before the study. Mothers who participated were in their late 30s and fathers were in the early 50s, with a third of families being rurally based and the rest living in urban settings. 18% obtained T-scores above the cut-off of 63 on the total problem scale or the Child Behaviour Checklist. These clinical cases had lower self-esteem and a more external locus of control compared with the rest of the group. Their fathers and mothers also had lower self-esteem and their mothers were more poorly psychologically adjusted. Compared with the non-clinical group, both mothers and fathers in the clinical group perceived marked problems in family functioning. From a wide range of measures of personal, parental and family characteristics, siblings' self-esteem, maternal mental health and siblings' locus of control were identified in a series of stepwise multiple regression analyses as the most significant predictors of siblings' adjustment.