This paper examines the effect of birth order on educational attainment in the United States and the underlying mechanism producing these effects. Using a family fixed effects model, we find negative birth order effects on educational outcomes. However, this effect varies depending on the household's income, being the strongest for households with…

Background: The increased life expectancy of people with Down syndrome puts pressure on parents, who are usually the main caregivers but who find caring more difficult as they get older. The quality of the support provided by brothers and sisters depends on the intra-family relationships they build when growing up. Methods: 121 adult siblings of…

The goal of the present study is to examine differences in cognitive, psychomotor, and social-emotional development scores between only children and children with siblings aged 6-30 months in rural China using data of 1802 children across 351 villages in 174 townships, disaggregating according to child gender. The results indicate that having a…

Background: The impact of having a disabled brother or sister on siblings' psychological well-being and sibling relationships has been the subject of several research studies. However, research which focuses on the relationship between siblings and their autistic brother or sister with an intellectual disability and complex care needs is rare. We…

This study examined the home literacy practices of bilingual families. We were specifically interested in the literacy practices families developed to answer the challenge of biliteracy. Through the home visits and supplying high quality bilingual books, we listened, observed, and gained a deeper understanding of the children and their families…

The First Year Inventory (FYI) is a parent report screening measure, aimed at identifying the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 12-month-old infants. This study aimed to investigate the utility of FYI within the Chinese community and develop a short version, encompassing both a low-risk sample and a high-risk sample comprising infants with…

China offers a natural laboratory for comparing the development of only children and children with siblings. We examined potential differences in the way that they expected a protagonist to allocate resources between two recipients with different social relationships, e.g. a sibling vs. a stranger, a friend vs. a stranger, and a sibling vs. a…

Involving typically developing (TD) children in delivering interventions can be an effective strategy conducive to long-lasting and generalized behavior changes for their siblings with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we recruited two sibling dyads and investigated the extent to which TD children could deliver the model-lead-test…

It is a very important step to consider the variables that affect sibling relationships together. This study aimed to determine the effects of the variables Birth Order (First, Middle, and Last), Gender (Female, Male), and Number of Siblings ("two or three" and "four or more"), which have been suggested to affect sibling…

The diagnostic characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) includes challenges in social communication skills. Among different components of social communication, language, particularly vocabulary, must be supported early in children's development as language is shown to be associated with academic, social, cognitive, and adaptive skills and…

Background: According to family systems theories, the family is an inter-connected social unit, where dysfunction, disability or illness in one family member may affect the rest of the family. Research indicates that the presence of an individual with autism can influence the functionality of the various subsystems, including siblings. Objective…

Identifying infants at elevated likelihood for autism and other developmental differences in the first year of life remains a significant challenge. This study explored associations between behavioral differences in infancy and developmental outcomes in toddlerhood. We conducted a secondary data analysis of 256 infants with an older autistic…

Purpose: The present study explored the extent to which early prelinguistic communication skills predict expressive language in toddlers with autistic siblings (Sibs-autism), who are known to be at high likelihood for autism and language disorder, and a comparison group of toddlers with non-autistic older siblings (Sibs-NA). Method: Participants…

Children develop cooperative behaviours within culturally specific social environments from an early age. This exploratory study analysed cooperation between siblings in two different cultural contexts: Yurakaré Indigenous community in Bolivia (N = 22; M[subscript age] = 5.31 years; 59.1% female) and urban Poland (N = 24; M[subscript age] = 4.86…

Background: Facilitating adult sibling involvement for individuals with pervasive support needs is important. This study explores the attitudes of healthcare professionals in this process. Method: The attitudes of healthcare professionals (n = 60) in the Netherlands were explored through an online, self-developed survey with open and closed-ended…