Coping and Caregiving Experiences Among Siblings of Individuals with Severe Mental Disorders Reyes González, Carolina Pérez Marfil, Mª Nieves Salazar Torres, Isabel Cristina coping strategies Severe mental disorder Siblings Background/Objective: Informal caregiving for individuals with severe mental disorders (SMDs) often leads to significant psychological distress. However, the specific coping strate gies that determine mental health outcomes among siblings remain poorly understood. This study aimed to analyze the predictive capacity of various coping strategies regarding health, perceived stress, self-esteem, and caregiving experience for siblings. Methods: Across-sectional study was conducted with a sample of siblings of patients with SMDs (N =60) from mental health service. Self-report measures were used to assess perceived health, perceived stress, self-esteem, coping strategies, and caregiving experience. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed for each dependent variable, controlling for collinearity. Results: The siblings reported a higher mean use of problem-focused coping strategies compared to emotion-focused coping strategies. Regression models were statisti cally significant for all analyzed variables, except for somatic symptoms. Emotion-focused maladaptive coping (EFMC) strategies emerged as the most consistent and powerful pre dictor, showing a significant association with positive caregiving appraisal (β = 0.657), depression (β = 0.500), poor health (β = 0.453), negative stress (β = 0.449), social dysfunction (β = 0.429), self-esteem (β = −0.390), and anxiety (β = 0.368). In contrast, problem-focused strategies were largely non-significant, except for an association with positive and negative aspects of caregiving (βPFMC = 0.509, βPFMC = 0.312, respectively), and positive stress (βPFAC = −0.272). Conclusions: These results suggest that while siblings of people with SMDs report a greater use of problem-focused coping strategies, the adoption of EFMC strategies is the most detrimental factor observed, given their negative influence on mental health, self-esteem, and caregiving experience. 2026-03-04T08:26:25Z 2026-03-04T08:26:25Z 2026-02-03 journal article Reyes-González, C., Pérez-Marfil, M. N., & Salazar, I. C. (2026). Coping and Caregiving Experiences Among Siblings of Individuals with Severe Mental Disorders. Healthcare, 14(3), 388. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare14030388 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/111874 10.3390/healthcare14030388 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI