Families of critically ill children can face many emotional challenges during the course of a child's illness. While some research has looked at the impact on parents, there has been little focused on siblings. We want to better understand how social support may have a protective effect on siblings' quality of life. The goal of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between an efficacious family environment and sibling behavior in families with children who are critically ill. Our hypothesis is that a cohesive, emotionally rich and open family environment provides social support so that siblings can explore and express the difficult emotions that accompany illness, and is therefore a protective factor for a sibling's behavior.
