# Coping and Caregiving Experiences Among Siblings of Individuals with Severe Mental Disorders

## TL;DR

This study explores how siblings of individuals with severe mental disorders cope, finding that emotion-focused coping strategies negatively affect their mental health and caregiving experience.

## Contribution

The study identifies emotion-focused maladaptive coping as a key predictor of poor mental health outcomes in caregiving siblings.

## Key findings

- Emotion-focused maladaptive coping significantly predicts depression, poor health, and low self-esteem.
- Problem-focused strategies are less impactful but linked to both positive and negative caregiving experiences.
- Emotion-focused coping is more prevalent than problem-focused coping among caregiving siblings.

## Abstract

Background/Objective: Informal caregiving for individuals with severe mental disorders (SMDs) often leads to significant psychological distress. However, the specific coping strategies that determine mental health outcomes among siblings remain poorly understood. This study aimed to analyze the predictive capacity of various coping strategies regarding health, perceived stress, self-esteem, and caregiving experience for siblings. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of siblings of patients with SMDs (N = 60) from mental health service. Self-report measures were used to assess perceived health, perceived stress, self-esteem, coping strategies, and caregiving experience. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed for each dependent variable, controlling for collinearity. Results: The siblings reported a higher mean use of problem-focused coping strategies compared to emotion-focused coping strategies. Regression models were statistically significant for all analyzed variables, except for somatic symptoms. Emotion-focused maladaptive coping (EFMC) strategies emerged as the most consistent and powerful predictor, showing a significant association with positive caregiving appraisal (β = 0.657), depression (β = 0.500), poor health (β = 0.453), negative stress (β = 0.449), social dysfunction (β = 0.429), self-esteem (β = −0.390), and anxiety (β = 0.368). In contrast, problem-focused strategies were largely non-significant, except for an association with positive and negative aspects of caregiving (βPFMC = 0.509, βPFMC = 0.312, respectively), and positive stress (βPFAC = −0.272). Conclusions: These results suggest that while siblings of people with SMDs report a greater use of problem-focused coping strategies, the adoption of EFMC strategies is the most detrimental factor observed, given their negative influence on mental health, self-esteem, and caregiving experience.