Over the last decades, various policies at national and local levels have been implemented to widen participation in higher education (HE) in Scotland and more widely in the UK. Despite this, the acquisition of a HE qualification is still largely determined by the family in which individuals are born. Our study provides new evidence on the extent…

Due to COVID-19, which emerged in 2019 and had an impact all over the world, many people started working from home and schools started to provide distance education. Therefore, parents had to spend more time at home with their children. Hence, communication between parents and children at home has become even more important. This study aims to…

Background and Aims: The purpose of this exploratory study was to expand existing literature on prelinguistic vocalizations by reporting results of the first home-based longitudinal study examining a wide variety of behaviors and characteristics, including early vocalizations, across infants at low and elevated risk of autism spectrum disorder…

This study examined sibling behavior during polyadic family conflicts (involving three or more family members) by identifying operational conflict elements (i.e., roles, topic), power strategies, effective influence of power, and social domain argumentation. Polyadic conflict sequences (n = 210) were identified in 35/39 families with two siblings…

A group often overlooked for specific supports in schools are siblings of children with a disability, special educational needs or a serious long-term condition (SEND). In this article we review the current sibling research and identify a lack of literature on interventions, particularly within a school context. We then present a description of…

Using a regression discontinuity design generated by school-entry cutoffs and school records from an anonymous district in Florida, we identify externalities in human capital production function arising from sibling spillovers. We find positive spillover effects from an older to a younger child in less affluent families and negative spillover…

Even though family plays a significant role in the lives of people with intellectual disability, little research has included their own views about their families. This study examined how 138 people with mild intellectual disability describe their family group, with a focus on the reciprocal nature of the emotional support in relationships with…

An extensive literature documents the instrumental role of early childhood in improving individuals' life chances. This dissertation consists of three connected chapters that study the effects of early childhood circumstances on human capital formation and its economic consequences. The first chapter examines the impact of family size on…

Background: Parents of children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) have extensive care duties. This study describes the phenomenon "parenting a child with PIMD." Method: We conducted in-depth interviews with 25 Dutch parents. A reflective lifeworld research was used. Findings: The essential meaning of the…

Siblings play an important role in the lives of children with disabilities, especially those with complex communication needs (CCN). However, children with CCN require support to learn social and communication skills. Like other communication partners, typically developing (TD) siblings may struggle to understand how to best interact with a child…

The present study examined the effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and sibling differences in birth weight on sibling differences in the receipt of maternal sensitivity (i.e., differential parenting). It was hypothesized that sibling differences in birth weight would predict "absolute" differential parenting across the sibship (i.e.,…

Research Findings: Few studies have examined second-born preschool children's empathy development under China's universal two-child policy. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in empathy between Chinese preschool children with one older sibling and without siblings. A total of 180 children were purposively sampled from 14…

Teenage siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk of worse mental health outcomes than their peers, yet there have been few interventions focused on improving their psychosocial wellbeing. This study explored the acceptability of an 8-session virtual group mind-body resiliency intervention for teen siblings of children…

This study built on research on sibling influences to assess potential bidirectional effects of older and younger siblings' risky behaviors on one another's risky behaviors; our longitudinal design allowed us to test these effects when siblings were at about the same chronological age, at different points in time. We also tested whether the…

Purpose: The sibling relationship teaches children to navigate social interactions with their peers. However, the presence of an exceptionality, such as hearing loss, in one child can affect the dynamic of this relationship. This article examines quantitative and qualitative effects of having a brother or sister with a cochlear implant (CI) on…