📋 Tender Overview
The strain caused by having a child with a disability affects the whole family. But state support can mitigate the negative consequences. This is the finding of a study that was recently published by the Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin). Second-born children whose younger sibling has a disability are 13 per cent more likely to seek psychological support themselves between the ages of 9 and 20. Since disabilities are more common in families with lower socioeconomic status, disability could be an underestimated factor reinforcing socio-economic disadvantages across generations, says co-author Janet Currie, RFBerlin Research Fellow and a professor at Yale University. Oct 18, 2026, 9:00:00 AM Harald Schultz , Rockwool Foundation Berlin However, the researchers also saw improvements in support for families over time. They show that after the Danish government expanded its social benefits for parents of seriously ill children in 1998, the uptake of mental health support for second-born children fell from 21 per cent to 9 per cent.Second-born children were more severely affected than first-borns because they were younger at the time of their disabled siblings birth. The number of visits by these second-born children to psychiatrists rose by 23 per cent, whilst prescriptions for psychiatric medication increased by 18 per cent. These siblings also sought counselling 11 per cent more frequently. The effects became apparent when the siblings were around 9 years old and then intensified during their teenage years. The effects were particularly pronounced in families where the mothers had only a primary school education. In these families, the employment rate among mothers fell by 13 per cent. The likelihood of these parents remaining together was 6 per cent lower.The study examined more than 60,000 Danish families with three or more children over a period of 30 years. Around one in fourteen Danish families has a child with a physical disability such as a heart defect, epilepsy, or cerebral palsy. At the same time, concerns about the mental health of young people are growing; the World Health Organisation estimates that, worldwide, 14 per cent of 10- to 19-year-olds suffer from a mental disorder.Janet Currie will speak at the Annual Public Lecture of RFBerlin at Humboldt University on 20 October about Investing in Child Mental Health: Implications for Human Capital Development. Contact for scientific information: janet.currie@yale.edu Original Publication: RFBerlin Research Insight: When a Younger Sibling Has a Disability, Older Children Pay a Mental Health Price; by Currie, J., Daysal, N. M., Gortz, M. and Hirani, J. C.; https://www.rfberlin.com/research-insight/ Source: https://idw-online.de/de/news879293
