Exploring the Factors That Affect the Life Stress of the Non-Disabled Adolescent Siblings of Children with Disabilities in South Korea

Backgrounds/Purpose: Regardless of the type of a disability, caring for a family member with a disability brings significant challenges to the whole family since responsibilities can be physically, emotionally and financially demanding. Such responsibilities can result in an increased level of personal distress to all family members including the non-disabled adolescent siblings. Especially, in Korean culture where family represents the collective group of reference, the expectation of caregiving is considered a responsibility of the whole family unit. Thus, it is not surprising that when a family has a child with a disability in Korea, the daily functioning and lifestyle of his or her non-disabled siblings are also considerably impacted since adolescent siblings have a high level of caring responsibility of the disabled children in addition to the general life stress as an adolescent (e.g., conflict between school and leisure, stress caused by uncertainty of the future, etc.). Yet, the stress experienced by the non-disabled siblings of children with disabilities in Korea is not well documented, and consequently limited services are available to them. To fill this gap in research and practice, this study was designed to identify the factors contributing to the life stress among the population.

Methods: By utilizing an exploratory design with a self-administered survey questionnaire, this study analyzed 179 cases of non-disabled adolescent siblings of children with disabilities in Korea. The study sample was composed of 53.1% female and 46.9% male with a mean age of 14.3 (SD=2.36). Siblings’ life stress was measured by Adolescent Stress Questionnaire assessing life stress in the following four areas:  home life; uncertainty of the future; conflict between school and leisure; and emerging adult responsibility. In addition, characteristics of the non-disabled adolescents (gender, age, and attitude toward disabled people), of the disabled siblings (gender, age, functional independence, and types of disability), and of the family (household income, parental involvement, and sibling relationship) were measured and used as independent variables or control variables, depending on an analysis model.

Results: The results of a series of hierarchical multiple regression analysis on the four areas of the life stress of non-disabled adolescents show the followings: after controlling for other characteristics of the non-disabled adolescents, the disabled siblings, and the family, 1) parental involvement consistently and significantly predicts the life stress in all the four areas; 2) the demographic factors of disabled children were not significantly linked to the stress in all the four areas; but 3) the functional independence of disabled children significantly predicts the level of stress in the ‘emerging adult responsibility’ area.  

 Implications: The findings emphasize the importance of intervention from a family system perspective to promote the well-being of children with disabilities and the entire family members.  Specifically, services should be geared not only towards the children with disabilities, but also towards parents (for more involvement in the non-disabled children’s lives) and siblings (for promotion of well-being). Social services geared to the non-disabled siblings can provide them with the opportunities to get more attention and assistance needed for desirable developmental outcomes.