Sexual selection shaped psychological mechanisms in both sexes to assess potential mates for evidence of mate quality (Buss, 2005). Attraction preferences are one such mechanism (Sugiyama, 2005) and physical attraction preferences are sensitive to fitness-promoting traits present in a potential mate. Physically attractive traits are thought to act as signals of good genetic quality (Neff & Pitcher, 2005) and are preferred because of the advantage such quality bestows towards reproductive success. Specifically, genetic quality is proposed to be a biological requirement necessary for physically attractive traits to develop and be maintained (Johnstone & Grafen, 1993). Furthermore, genetic quality is heritable to offspring, thereby increasing offspring reproductive success (Orr, 2009). All mating decisions inherently involve trade-offs due to costs inflicted on time and resources when choosing a long-term mate. Assessing a mate for genetic quality is imperative to ensuring one selects a quality mate with heritable fitness benefits towards offspring reproductive success (Buss, 2005). In order to minimize costs and maximize benefits when making mate selection decisions, humans use multiple and redundant signals of mate quality (Fink & Penton-Voak, 2002; Møller & Pomiankowski, 1993). Accordingly, this study supposed that siblings act as redundant signals of genetic quality that would factor into mating decisions. Because genetic quality is heritable (Houle, 1991) and visible through physical attractiveness (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1999), this study explored the possibility that knowledge of relatedness influenced attractiveness judgments of human faces. Supporting the main hypothesis of the current study, siblings affected judgments of physical attractiveness for target faces. Analyses showed this effect to be driven entirely by female raters for both male [t(62)=3.87, p<.001] and female [t(61)=2.24, p=.029] target faces. Secondary analyses examining the effects of sibling pair attractiveness differences (low vs. high) showed that relatedness significantly increased female ratings of facial attractiveness for both low and high facially attractive male and low facially attractive female target faces. Results offer two possible conclusions as to the role relatedness may serve in mate quality assessments that align with parental investment as well as kin selection assumptions.

Family researchers have often reported that siblings of children with disabilities have mixed outcomes, some harmful, and some beneficial, but have neglected to investigate how the sibling relationship might be correlated with other factors, such as family cohesion. Therefore, 72 mothers and fathers raising a child with a disability and a child without a disability completed the Family Cohesion subscale of Bloom's family functioning measure and the Sibling Inventory of Behavior to determine interactions between parents' perceptions of family cohesion and sibling relationships. Results indicated that mothers and fathers' perceptions of cohesion and sibling relationships were not significantly different. Mothers' perceptions of cohesion were significantly correlated with only two aspects of sibling relationships: empathy and avoidance. Fathers' perceptions of family cohesion were independent of their perceptions of sibling relationships.

Research indicates that, in some instances, siblings can be a first line of defense when a child experiences bullying. Research also shows that children with disabilities are often prime targets of bullying. However, no research was located that specifically explored the relationship between siblings of children with disabilities, their perceptions of bullying and the roles that they play when bullying occurs. This study investigated siblings' perceptions of bullying through a qualitative interview. Twelve participants ranged in age from 7 to 13. Few participants described witnessing siblings with special needs being bullied; however, many of these children described themselves at bystanders who intervene when a peer is being bullied. Several factors, such as the young age of the participants' siblings or the fact that none of our participants attended school with their sibling, may be related to the lack of bullying that was reported. Future research may investigate the experiences of children with school-aged siblings with disabilities.

SAMMANFATTNING Introduktion: I Sverige drabbas ca 300 barn av cancer varje år och ca 85% överlever. För barn mellan 1–14 år är det den vanligaste dödsorsaken i Sverige. När ett barn drabbas av cancer påverkas hela familjen. Att uppnå en familjefokuserad omvårdnad är viktigt för att ge det sjuka barnet stöd men också för att kunna stötta varje enskild individ i familjen. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva barn och unga vuxnas upplevelser av att ha ett syskon med cancer. Metod: En beskrivande design med kvalitativ litteraturöversikt som datainsamlingsmetod användes. Tio artiklar togs fram från databaserna PubMed, CINAHL och PsycInfo. Dessa studerade syskon från nio olika länder. Artiklarna kvalitetsgranskades utifrån SBU:s granskningsmall för kvalitativa studier. Resultatanalysen genomfördes genom att läsa samtliga artiklar flera gånger, sammanfatta och sedan diskutera likheter och skillnader. Utifrån det skapades sedan teman med tillhörande underteman. Resultat: Resultatet delades in i tre huvudteman; känslor, hantering av känslor och social hälsa. Syskonen upplevde olika starka känslor som kunde hanteras på olika sätt. Känsla av ensamhet och exkludering i familjen var vanligt förekommande och kunde lättare hanteras genom att få anpassad information. Ett ökat ansvar i familjen och hemmet var också vanligt. Detta kunde upplevas som en börda eller som ett sätt att hjälpa till. Stöd från vänner upplevdes på olika sätt, många uppskattade det men tyckte att det kunde vara svårt att prata om situationen. Slutsats: För att kunna arbeta familjecentrerat är det viktigt att sjuksköterskan förstår hur barn och unga vuxna upplever att ha ett syskon med cancer. I studien framkom det att de ofta kunde känna sig ensamma och bortprioriterade. Det är viktigt att uppmärksamma detta och därför fortsätta studera området. / ABSTRACT Introduction: About 300 children get sick with cancer every year in Sweden and about 85% survives. It’s the most common cause of death for children between 1–14 years in Sweden. The whole family is affected by the cancer in different ways. It’s important for the sick child and to be able to support all individuals in the family to achieve a family-focused care. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe experiences of children and young adults who have a sibling with cancer. Method: A qualitative literature study with a descriptive design for data collection was conducted. Ten articles were selected from the databases PubMed, CINAHL and PsycInfo. The articles studied siblings from nine different countries. To review the articles the template for qualitative articles by SBU was used. The results were analyzed by reading all of the articles several times, summarize the results and then discuss similarities and differences. Based on this, three main themes were established. Results: The results were categorized into three different themes; emotions, dealing with emotions and social health. The siblings experienced different kind of emotions that they dealt with in various ways. A feeling of loneliness and exclusion from the family was common and could be managed more easily by getting customized information. It was also common for the siblings to get a greater responsibility in the family and household. Some participants saw this as a burden, while some participants saw this as way of helping out. The support from friends was experienced in different ways, while several of the siblings thought it was a good thing, they also thought it was difficult to talk about the subject. Conclusion: To be able to work in a family-centered way, it’s important for the nurse to understand how the experiences of children and young adults of having a sibling with cancer are. In the study it became clear that they often could feel lonely and deprioritized. This is important to recognize and because of this it’s also important to keep on studying the area.

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