The Human Figure Drawing with Donor and Nondonor Siblings of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Patients

Although bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has become standard therapy for many life-threatening childhood disorders, there is little research on the psychological impact of BMT on family members. We recently found in a cohort of donor and nondonor siblings that donors had significantly more anxiety, lower self-esteem, and more adaptive skills than nondonors; nondonors showed significantly more school problems. In our investigation, we used the Human Figure Drawing (HFD) (Koppitz, 1968) to measure the siblings’ emotional distress toward BMT. In this paper, we report the quantitative and qualitative findings from the HFDs (n = 42, ages 6 to 18 years) including data from case vignettes of four siblings. Among the siblings, feelings of isolation, anger, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem emerged as major themes. These findings indicate the importance of attending to siblings’ needs throughout the transplantation process. Siblings should be seen as an integral part of the family system and as important participants in the process.