Sibling relationships remain understudied in typically developing adolescents who have siblings with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study explored the lived experiences and perceptions of ...adolescents who have a brother or a sister with a diagnosis of ASD using semi-structured interviews. Using thematic analysis, the participants reported having difficulties communicating with their siblings. Feeling a mixture of emotions was common when interacting with their siblings with ASD and emotional self-regulation was a typical coping strategy utilized by these adolescents. Despite the challenges, having a sibling with ASD led to closer relationships between the siblings. These findings offer insights into these adolescents’ needs and how they may be best supported, informing the practice of speech-language pathology and other health professions.
When adolescents are asked how likely they think it is that they will go to college, does their answer influence what they will actually do? Typically, it is difficult to determine whether college ...expectations promote academic achievement or just reflect a reasonable forecast of what is likely to happen to them. We used a sample of siblings from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 1,766) to test whether associations between college expectations and educational attainment remained after accounting for unobserved family factors that may shape both educational expectations and attainment. Compared with their siblings, adolescents with higher college expectations were also 43% more likely to attend college, even when analyses controlled for grades and IQ. The effect of college expectations on college attendance was strongest among youths living in higher-socioeconomic-status families.
Cross-lagged panel designs were used to examine longitudinal and potential (bi)directional relationships between primary caregiver reported sibling relationship quality and the behaviors of children ...with intellectual disability (n = 297) and their closest in age siblings. The behavioral and emotional problems of the child with intellectual disability positively predicted sibling conflict over time. When accounting for control variables, this relationship was no longer present. Sibling warmth positively predicted the prosocial behaviors of the child with intellectual disability over time. When accounting for control variables, both sibling warmth and sibling conflict positively predicted the prosocial behaviors of the child with intellectual disability over time. Future research directions and clinical implications are discussed.
Abstract Sibling programming is an important part of a prevention framework, particularly for youth in foster care. After children are removed from their families and placed into foster care in the ...aftermath of maltreatment, the sibling relationship is often the most viable ongoing relationship available to the child, and may be critical to a youth’s sense of connection, emotional support, and continuity. The promise of dyadic sibling programming in particular rests on the ability of interventions to enhance the quality of sibling relationships; yet little research exists that suggests that sibling interventions can improve relationship quality among foster youth. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effects of a specific dyadic sibling-focused intervention for older and younger siblings on sibling relationship quality. One hundred sixty four dyads (328 youth) participated in the study, with each dyad consisting of an older sibling between 11 and 15 years of age at baseline and a younger sibling separated in age by less than 4 years. Hierarchical linear models were applied to self-reported, observer-reported and observational data over the 18-month study period. Findings suggest that the sibling intervention holds promise for improving sibling relationship quality among youth in foster care. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.
This study utilized actor–partner interdependence modeling to examine the bidirectional effects of younger (Mage = 18 months) and older siblings (Mage = 48 months) on later empathy development in a ...large (n = 452 families), diverse (42% immigrant) Canadian sample. Controlling for parenting, demographic characteristics, sibling relationship quality, and within‐child stability in empathic concern, both younger and older siblings’ observed empathic concern uniquely predicted relative increases in the other's empathy over a period of 18 months. The strength of the partner effects did not differ by birth order. Sex composition moderated the younger sibling partner effect, whereas age gap moderated the older sibling partner effect. This study highlights the important role that siblings play in enhancing the development of care and concern for others.
Background
Understanding sibling relationship quality is important, as it is associated with mental health outcomes in both childhood and adulthood. Arguably, these relationships are even more ...important for individuals with intellectual disability, as siblings can be important sources of care, support, advocacy and friendship for one another. The intellectual disability field, however, has a tendency to assume that the relationship lacks reciprocity, and that it is the sibling with intellectual disability who affects the sibling, and that this effect is somehow ‘negative’.
Methods
We examined whether the behaviour problems and prosocial behaviour of 500 child sibling pairs, where one child has an intellectual disability, were associated with their sibling relationship quality. Measures included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires and the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire. Family poverty, the gender of both children, birth order and whether the child with intellectual disability had autism or Down syndrome were also included in the analyses.
Results
Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an adequate model fit for the latent variables measuring sibling relationships. The final structural model found that the prosocial behaviour and internalising problems of the children with intellectual disability, their typically developing siblings' prosocial behaviours and sibling birth order were associated with intimacy–companionship in the sibling relationship. The internalising, externalising and prosocial behaviours of the children with intellectual disability, their siblings' externalising behaviours and sibling birth order were associated with antagonism–quarrelling in the sibling relationship.
Conclusions
We found that the behaviours of both the child with intellectual disability and their sibling were associated with both ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ dimensions of their sibling relationship. This indicates a bidirectional and reciprocal effect.
Previous research suggests that increased second language (L2) input at home may not support L2 acquisition in children from migrant backgrounds. In drawing this conclusion, existing work has largely ...aggregated across family members. This study contrasts the effect of L2 input from older siblings with that from mothers. Participants were 113 child L2 learners of English (mean age = 5;10 range 4;10-7;2; mean exposure to L2 in school = 16.7 months range 2-48 months). All children had at least one older sibling. Using hierarchical linear regression modelling with controls for age, non-verbal reasoning and phonological short-term memory, we found that greater L2 input from siblings - but not mothers - was associated with stronger L2 abilities in narrative macrostructure, inflectional morphology, and vocabulary. Increased cumulative exposure to the L2 at school and greater maternal L2 fluency were also positively related to children's L2 inflectional morphology and vocabulary scores.
IntroductionNeuroanatomical abnormalities are reported in psychotic disorders compared to healthy controls; nevertheless, less is known about the role of familial liability to psychosis in ...morphological brain changes.ObjectivesUsing an exploratory voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analyses of the whole brain, we evaluated differences on GMVs across the whole brain among first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, community-controls, and healthy siblings of patients to interrogate the role of familial liability.MethodsData were retrieved from a study (STREAM) conducted in Ribeirão Preto/SP Brazil. We included 71 first-episode psychosis patients (67.6% males, mean age±SD: 18.7±10.8), 24 unaffected siblings of patients (37.5% males, mean age±SD 30.8±10), and 36 controls (71.9% males, mean age±SD: 10±10.5). All magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were acquired on a 3T Philips scanner. VBM data were processed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) software in MATLAB the MNI coordinate system. We performed exploratory voxel-wise comparisons of GMVs among the three groups using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model in SPM. Results were considered significant if they retained significance after family-wise error (FWE) correction for multiple comparisons (p<0.05). All the analyses were adjusted for age, sex, education in years, and total brain GMV.ResultsThe whole-brain exploratory analyses revealed no significant findings at the p<0.05 level (FWE-corrected). However, pairwise comparisons revealed significant changes betweeen FEP patients and their unaffected siblings. In particular, FEP patients had decreased volumes in the right side of the following regions (FEW = 0.047): superior temporal cortex, Rolandic operculum, insula, Heschel’s gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, superior temporal pole, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, fusiform gyrus, amydgala, olfactory, inferior frontal operculum, cerebellum, posterior and medial orbital frontal cortex, rectus, medial temporal, medial frontal, and putamen. FEP patients also showed decreased volumes on the left side of the following regions (FWE 0.049): frontal superior medial gyrus, superior frontal gyrus, frontal middle part, caudate, anterior cingulate cortex, thalamus, and pallidum. Patients also showed widespread reduced GMV in various GMVs regions compared to controls at FWE<0.05. However, no difference was found between siblings and controls (FWE: >0.05).ConclusionsThe study of healthy siblings of patients with heritable illnesses could help in the understanding of the contribution of genetic background and environmental factors to illness state and predisposition. Differences between patients and their siblings could be attributed to the disease state, considering that the unaffected sibling group and unrelated healthy control group did not differ. We will next evaluate biological and environmental contributors to the reported differences.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared
Disclosure, or revealing personal information to others, is important for the development and maintenance of close relationships (Jourard, 1971; Rotenberg, 1995). More recently within developmental ...psychology, however, the focus has been the study of adolescent disclosure to parents as a means of information management regarding their daily activities. This research assumes that a) disclosure between multiple adolescents and parents within the same family are similar, and b) only information transmitted from adolescents to parents is important for adolescent well-being. Thus, this article presents the findings of 2 within-family studies to investigate differences in the amount and social domain (Smetana, 2006; Turiel, 2002) of youth disclosure to mothers versus siblings, and the influence of disclosure to siblings on relationship quality and youth emotional adjustment. Study 1 utilized 101 sibling dyads with youth ranging in age from 11-21 years, but all siblings living together. Study 2 investigated a sample of 58 sibling dyads in which all first-borns were first-year college students and all second-borns were in high school. All participants completed questionnaire measures to assess study variables. Findings revealed that while youth disclosed more to mothers than siblings, this difference disappears by emerging adulthood, particularly depending on the domain of the issue. Additionally, while greater disclosure among siblings was positive for the quality of the relationship, sibling disclosure was differentially associated with emotional adjustment depending on whether youth were the disclosers or being disclosed to, the domain of the issues disclosed, and the gender composition of the dyad.
Background
Siblings of youth with cancer have heightened risk for poor long‐term psychosocial outcomes. Although sibling psychosocial care is a standard in pediatric oncology, this standard is among ...those least likely to be met. To address barriers to providing sibling services, a blueprint for systematic psychosocial screening and support of siblings was developed based on feedback from a national sample of psychosocial providers.
Procedure
Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of psychosocial care providers (N = 27) of various disciplines working in US pediatric cancer centers, varied in size, type, and extent of sibling support. Interviews queried providers’ suggestions for the future of sibling psychosocial care and impressions of a blueprint for sibling service delivery, which was iteratively refined based on respondents’ feedback. Interviews were analyzed using applied thematic analysis.
Results
Based on existing literature and refined according to providers’ recommendations, the Sibling Services Blueprint was developed to provide a comprehensive guide for systematizing sibling psychosocial care. The blueprint content includes: (i) a timeline for repeated sibling screening and assessment; (ii) a stepped model of psychosocial support; (iii) strategies for circumventing barriers to sibling care; and (iv) recommendations for how centers with varying resources might accomplish sibling‐focused care. The blueprint is available online, allowing providers to easily access and individualize the content. Providers indicated enthusiasm and high potential utility and usability of the blueprint.
Conclusions
The Sibling Services Blueprint may be a useful tool for systematizing sibling psychosocial care, promoting wider availability of sibling‐focused services, and addressing siblings’ unmet needs.
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