Sibling loss research a personal journey
By Erin Carpenter
Following the death of her sister in 1996, Dr. Ann Laverty,
PhD'01, noticed a lack of books and research on adults like
her who had lost a sibling.
 Several years later, she decided to do something about it.
While pursuing her doctorate in educational psychology at the
University of Calgary, Laverty studied how adult women experience
and cope with the death of a sibling.
Now an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Education’s Division
of Applied Psychology, Laverty and her co-researchers, Dr.
Sharon Robertson and PhD candidate Mirjam Knapik, BA'01, MSc'03,
are studying how sibling loss affects post-secondary students.
“When I first figured out there was this gap in the research literature,
I did a lot of soul-searching about whether this is the topic I really
wanted to undertake for my doctoral research,” she recalls.
Laverty, who is also a counsellor with the university’s Counselling
Centre, has a particular interest in post-secondary students, as she counsels
them daily on academic, career and personal matters.
“It’s a critical time in terms of development and growing up,” Laverty
says. “We are interested in looking at what losing a sibling at that
time of life transition means, because a sibling relationship
is often anticipated to be one of the longest lifetime relationships that
we have.”
The research team is studying how students experience this
loss, how women and men might experience it differently, and
what might help or hinder their ability to cope with it. Laverty
says staff and faculty influence how students respond and she
wants to help them, too.
“Is there some way we can help professors understand; if a student
comes to you with this kind of concern, here’s two or three helpful
things to say, or places to refer them,” she says.
The research team plans to speak with 15 students from five
post-secondary institutions in Calgary who have lost a sibling
six months to three years prior to being interviewed.
“We hope that in some way we can make a difference to support students
who are going through this type of experience,” she says.
Laverty says losing her own sister has had a definite impact
on her research. “I think the fact that I had experienced this loss
myself made this a richer experience. Once I decided to do
it, it became a very positive experience for me in terms of dealing with
that loss, but more so, I feel that I made a contribution, and really grew
as a person. I feel a lot of personal pride about the work that I did.”
(If you would like to participate in this research, contact
the researchers at 220-6542 or mtknapik@shaw.ca)
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