Perceived stress of nonhospitalized children during the hospitalization of a sibling.

The purpose of this research was to examine nonhospitalized children's perceptions of the stress of the hospitalization of a sibling. The subjects were 45 nonhospitalized children (5-12 years of age), and their parents, who had a sibling hospitalized over 24 hours for a medical or surgical condition. The Child Drawing: Hospital (CD: H) was used to measure the perception of stress related to a sibling's hospitalization. The nonhospitalized children perceived the stress of hospitalization at a level of stress (anxiety) equal to the level of stress of hospitalized children and higher than children in a school setting found by previous investigators. Sex and age were not related to the degree of perceived stress (anxiety). The perception of stress varied significantly in relation to the type of sibling relationship, residence of the well sibling during the hospitalization, frequency of sibling visitation, and amount of parental behavior change as identified by the nonhospitalized children.