The relationship between attachment style, social self-efficacy, social relatedness, and cancer experience of siblings: A pilot study

The present study sought to explore potential relationships between attachment style, social support, illness intrusiveness, social self-efficacy, and feelings of loneliness or relatedness in siblings of pediatric cancer patients. Further, it investigated the role of social self-efficacy in the relationship between one's attachment style and the degree to which one feels socially connected. Finally, the investigators considered the potential relationships between disruptions in life activities associated with the cancer experience, changes in the parent-child relationship, and attachment style. Siblings (N = 51) of individuals diagnosed with pediatric cancer completed measures of attachment, illness intrusiveness, social self-efficacy, and loneliness, and answered questions regarding perceptions of change in the parent-child relationship and social supports. Stage one analyses included simple correlations to investigate the relationships among all variables. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the relationships between social support, illness intrusiveness, attachment style, social self-efficacy, and loneliness, as well as the relationship between illness intrusiveness, change in the parent-child relationship, and attachment style. Social support and social self-efficacy most strongly contributed to feelings of loneliness. A higher degree of secure attachment was also found to be significantly related to a higher degree of social self-efficacy and lesser degree of loneliness; social self-efficacy appeared to mediate the relationship between secure attachment and loneliness. Illness intrusiveness and change in the parent-child relationship did not appear to contribute to preoccupied attachment.