Staying in the shadow of the sick sibling: Examination of the effect of the disease on the healthy sibling

The relationship that a child establishes with his/her siblings, who are his/her first social environment, has an important place in his/her life, especially during childhood. The introduction of a chronically ill child into the family affects sibling relationships and the personalities of other children. The most mentally affected people in the close environment of children with chronic illness are their parents and healthy siblings. It has been observed that chronic illness makes healthy siblings more prone to psychological illnesses, weakens their psychosocial functions, and such effects continue into adulthood. There are no studies in Turkey that reveal how healthy adults with chronically ill siblings are affected by this situation according to their developmental stages. The aim of this thesis is to examine in detail the experiences of healthy adults with a chronically ill sibling regarding the developmental periods they spend with their siblings. This thesis, which was conducted with 16 adults between the ages of 19-43 with a chronically ill sibling, aims to understand the experiences of these individuals in depth, rather than generalizing statistically. In this direction, thematic analysis, one of the qualitative analysis methods, was used. According to the results of the analysis, the themes of experiences of relationship between siblings, emotional behavioral consequences, the recording mind: memories, parental approaches, and the impact of growing up with a sick sibling on adulthood were discussed in line with the relevant literature, and suggestions for practitioners and researchers were presented.